


Heartless Contempt

by Bunny7799



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Big Brother Sans, Chara Has Issues, Chara Is Their Own Warning, Chara Possessing Frisk, Chara and Frisk Share a Body, Chara is disturbed, Death Threats, Determination (Undertale), Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Roller Coaster, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Frisk Needs A Hug, Genocide, Genocide Frisk, Genocide Sans, Monster Dust (Undertale), Nonbinary Chara and Frisk, Oops, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma, Repeated Genocide, Sans Boss Battle, Sans Dies, Sans Has Issues, Sans Has Night Terrors, Sans Makes Puns, Sans Needs A Hug, Sans Remembers Resets, Tags Contain Spoilers, The Underground (Undertale), Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Undertale Genocide Route, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, Undertale Saves and Resets, by chara, geddit, soriel if you squint, that became dark really quickly, these tags don't make any SANS hehe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-02-19 23:23:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 28,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13134354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunny7799/pseuds/Bunny7799
Summary: This is the tenth one. The tenth reset.Nine times, the child wearing pink and blue stripes has commit GENOCIDE. Massacred nearly the entire monster population, laughed gleefully like it was all just a harmless game - playthings just for them!In a way, it is all just a game.Because one moment, he's bathing in the bright yellow light of the Judgement Hall, clutching a horrible gash on his ribs and sternum -And the next, he's in the middle of reading "Peek a Boo With Fluffy Bunny" to Papyrus as his bedtime story.





	1. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nine times, the human has commit GENOCIDE.  
> Ten times, the human has RESET.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first Undertale fic!  
> Yay.  
> 

Excuses, he wonders when he'll run out of them.

Like socks, it isn't like he can just wear the same pair for the rest of his life, they'll wear out eventually.

Perhaps that's a stupid comparison.

He knows it is.

.

.

.

In the last timeline, he'd been caught having a nightmare of something that hadn't even happened yet. He had then told his brother they would  _ketchup_  later in the day - Papyrus never got to live to see the end of that day.

He'd known that would happen. After all, that was the day he had relived through his nightmare.

.

.

.

This is the tenth one. The tenth reset.

Nine times, the child wearing pink and blue stripes has commit GENOCIDE. Massacred nearly the entire monster population, laughed gleefully like it was all just a harmless game -  _playthings just for them!_

In a way, it  _is_ all just a game.

Because one moment, he's bathing in the bright yellow light of the Judgement Hall, clutching a horrible gash on his ribs and sternum - 

And the next, he's in the middle of reading "Peek a Boo With Fluffy Bunny" to Papyrus as his bedtime story.

 

He doesn't even stumble in the middle of Papyrus' story.

.

.

.

"night paps."

"GOODNIGHT SANS."

 

But no, he knows he won't be having a goodnight.

His dreams will be plagued by that sick child, their demented grin as they  _beheaded_ his brother. The psychotic laughing that echoed through the caverns, their dust covered sleeves, their unhinged red eyes, their sickly pale skin, their shrieks as they perished, their crimson blood splattering on the golden tiles -

Not knowing whether or not he's walking in snow or in his friend's remains.

A red scarf covered in a thick coat of dust.

Alphys' cries would ring in his ears, her shouts for him to -

_"HELP HER SANS! PLEASE! YOU CAN STILL MAKE IT, CAN'T YOU!? SHE'S STILL FIGHTING, UNDYNE'S STILL-"_

Only for her pleads to stop. 

 _"I need to call the King,"_ she'd say, a haunted look on her face.

.

.

.

_This world will live on, huh?_

He's not so sure it will.

.

.

.

He dreams of a monster, melting and dusting.

 

DETERMINATION is a dangerous thing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, you guys are gonna love the next chapter.
> 
> Note the sarcasm.


	2. Fatalism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus will die this timeline, what's the point in trying?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this turned to be longer than expected...  
> Since Undertale's soundtrack is so unique and well-made, I have to put a link here.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [Bonetrousle (but not the Genocide one, because it just isn't nice to listen to).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqzBv3FYpr0)
> 
>  
> 
> .  
> [Snowy!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMX3aVbNdvo)
> 
>  
> 
> :)

The next morning, he wakes up knowing the human will arrive soon.

"SANS! I'M GOING OUT TO RE CALIBRATE MY PUZZLES! YOU BETTER NOT BE LATE FOR SENTRY DUTY!"

"don't worry bro, i won't."

"THAT'S GOOD!"

Papyrus walks out the front door, red scarf swishing in the wind. The door promptly slams shut again with his brother's triumphant "NYEHEHE"s. 

Sans sighs, staring at the plate of "spaghetti" on the table left there for him. He leaves it be.

Maybe he'll eat it later, but right now he's just...

...

He slips his slippers on and trudges out into the snow. 

He locks the door, knowing Papyrus would berate him if he forgot.

Snow cascades gently down from who knows where. The snow on the ground is still free of dust. He sees the doors to the Ruins have not yet creaked open, as he watches from the shadowy forest.

As always, there is a tough-looking branch on the ground. One he remembers snapping in half numerous times.

Just shy of five minutes later, the double doors of the ruins open. Out walks the human, toy knife in hand, covered head to toe with dust that could easily be mistaken as snow.

But in the Ruins, it does not snow. That he knows.

They step over the tough-looking branch, and he loudly snaps that branch in two just three seconds later. They don't flinch or look backwards.

When they reach the gate, Sans walks up to them and says his first lines.

 **"H U M A N."** he says,  **"D o n ' t   y o u   k n o w   h o w   t o   g r e e t   a   n e w   p a l ?   T u r n   a r o u n d   a n d   s h a k e   m y   h a n d ."**

They do just that, an eerie smile stretched across their features, it twitches at the loud sound of the whoopee cushion.

"Sans the comedian..." they say with recognition, "How's that brother of your's?"

He completely disregards their words, despite the boiling pit of anger in his chest.

"heheh... the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny." He stares at them, "... that's, uh. your cue to laugh." He closes his left eye, "or, uh, to emote at all...?"

"Cut the bullshit," they say.

"OK, that's fine. everyone's got their own sense of humor," with his perpetual shit eating grin, he says, "i'm sans. sans the skeleton."

They already know that. He's done this nine times before.

"i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now." Sans remarks "... but... y'know, i don't really care about capturing anybody."

The human sneers at him.

"now my brother, papyrus... he's a human hunting FANATIC. hey, actually, i think that's him over there."

"i have an idea. go through this gate thingy... yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

They slip past it and he follows right behind them.

"quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp."

The human doesn't budge. Of course.

"...uh, ok, i guess you don't have to."

Papyrus approaches the two of them and Sans is just slightly alarmed by the human brandishing their toy knife.

"SANS!!! HAVE YOU FOUND A HUMAN YET!??!" Papyrus asks at his usual volume.

"yeah."

"REALLY!?!? WOWIE!!! GUESS THAT'S SETTLED."

Papyrus then walks the other way.

"that worked out, huh?"

The human starts to leave without so much as a glance.

"well, i'll be straight-forward with you. my brother'd really like to see a human... so, y'know, it'd really help me out... if you kept pretending to be one,"  _dirty brother killer,_ he thinks.

"Papyrus, still the naïve monster he is..." they trail, as Sans walks away from them and they go their separate ways.

He'll leave them alone, just... for now. 

.

.

.

He's soon at the doors to the Ruins. Sitting with his back to the doors, frosted across the surface.

He raps his knuckles on the surface softly.

" 'Why did the skeleton want a friend?' "

He recites a joke Toriel once told him, staring at the snow.

" 'Because he was feeling BONELY...' "

**But nobody came.**

"OK, i got one."

"what do you call a freezing skeleton?"

...

"a numb skull." 

.

.

.

He can feel the burn of DETERMINATION present in his bones, it hasn't faded ever since the first Genocide timeline.

All he can say, is his memories of the previous Genocide timeline are with him because of the DETERMINATION. He remembers everything, just like that psychotic weed.

He's unable to do  _anything_ about the tyranny, _at all._

It's useless, really.

 _He's_ useless.

In the grand scheme of things, he's tiny, just a nuisance. Though he takes pride in being the child's  _biggest_ annoyance.

...

His skull seems to be squeezing into itself.

Likely because of how much information he's retaining,  _nearly eight timelines worth of memories, all coming to him at once._

But... it's worth it. It means that maybe not all HOPE is lost, they've still got a fraction of a chance thanks to him.

However, it's all for naught if the human decides to be uncooperative. 

_Then I'll just keep them in that corridor forever._

.

.

.

He meets up with his brother where the human will soon be.

"SO SANS! WHEN'S THE HUMAN SHOWING UP??? I WANT TO LOOK MY SUNDAY BEST... OR AT LEAST MY TUESDAY PRETTY-GOOD."

"don't you only have one outfit?" he asked with an almost bemused expression.

"YEAH, BUT I COULD STYLE MY HAIR!"

"oh. right. good idea."

That's when he decides to acknowledge the human's presence. He notices their eerie smile looks just a little more...dark. 

_What are they planning?_

"say, why don't you look over there?" Sans asks his brother.

Papyrus then spins in circles in an attempt to locate just what his brother wanted him to look at.

"SANS!!! OH MY GOD!!!! I'M DIZZY. WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?"

"behold," he says in a deadpan way.

"WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME TO LOOK AT A ROCK...?" 

"hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

"OH MY GOD!!! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS."

"well. it's not a rock," he almost laughs.

 

_He'll miss Papyrus' innocence once he's gone._

 

"NOT A ROCK...?" Papyrus gives a contemplating look. "OH NO!!! BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION!!! THAT MEANS IT'S A HUMAN!!!"

Papyrus takes a second to compose himself.

"AHEM!! HUMAN!! PREPARE YOURSELF!! FOR HIGH JINKS! FOR LOW JINKS! DANGERS! PUZZLES! CAPERS! JAPERS!" 

He seems to be trying to hype up the human.

"BEING CAPTURED!" He continues, "AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED... IF YOU DARE!"

He runs off with a "NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!"

"... and you don't even bat an eye, huh?" Sans comments, glancing at the human child, before going off to find a good spot to spy on the human.

...

Doggo has fallen, so has Snowdrake.

...

The human has begun to talk to thin air.

He's sure he can hear them saying, "C'mon! It'll be so fun!"

_Who are they even talking to?_

The human continues on as usual, slaughtering each monster they come across.

He has half a mind to try and stop them now, but Karmic Retribution, his ability, only does any good when his opponent has high LOVE.

They're at LOVE 7. 

...

They come across a snowman.

Poor guy just wants to travel around the world.

"Hello. I am a snowman. I cannot move. Traveller, if you could..."

The snowman allows them to take a piece of him.

They turn, and then they walk back to him to snatch another piece of snow.

"Oh me, oh my. What are you doing? Soon there won't be any of me left..."

They take another chunk of snow away.

"Please... stop..." It pleads.

The Snowman is now a useless pile of snow.

Sans watches with a sort of twisted feeling in his chest.

.

.

.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY!! YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!!"

The two of them are standing beside a puzzle.

"i think that's called... sleeping," his perpetual grin widens.

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!"

The two skeleton brothers turn to the human. 

"OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU... MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE... QUITE SHOCKING!"

Before Papyrus can even explain the puzzle, the child walks right into the middle of the puzzle.

"FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS... THE INVISIBLE..." Papyrus looks slightly uncomfortable, "UHHHHHHH...?" But then something in his head clears and he no longer looks discomforted.

"HMMM... YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK," he concludes, "YOU SEE, WHERE I COME FROM, IT'S A LOVING TRADITION TO SUFFER THROUGH HORRIBLE PUZZLES FOR NO REASON."

The human walks until they're right in front of a startled Papyrus, his skull is sweating slightly.

"SO, UH, JUST WALK BACK THERE, AND..."

The human doesn't comply, instead they choose to stare at the tall skeleton as he walks away, sighing and muttering.

"WHY COULDN'T WE GET A HUMAN THAT LIKES PUZZLES???"

Once Papyrus is gone, Sans says, "it would make my brother happy if you played along."

Sans, for some reason, wants Papyrus to be happy before he dusts - but what does it matter?

Nothing matters anymore.

.

.

.

"HUMAN!!! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR..."

A pregnant pause, they stand in the middle of the snow.

"SANS!! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!!?"

"it's right there. on the ground," says Sans, looking at the paper funnily, "trust me. there's no way they'll skip this one."

The striped shirt wearing child passes right by the word search on the floor.

"SANS!!! THAT DID NOTHING!"

"whoops. knew i should have put down junior jumble instead."

"WHAT?!? JUNIOR JUMBLE?!? FINALLY, SOMETHING WE CAN BOTH AGREE ON."

Papyrus walks away in hopes the human will like his next puzzle.

"guess you don't like word searches, huh? me neither. i'm more of a funny pages kind of guy..." Sans stares at them as they walk away, dust covered, with a malevolent smile on their face.

...

Immediately after they're out of sight, he takes a "shortcut" to the town of Snowdin. 

He needs to evacuate everyone.

As loud as he can, he shouts, "EVERYONE NEEDS TO EVACUATE! THE HUMAN IS APPROACHING!"

They all listen to him, they've never heard Sans shout so frantically before. His facade is gone.

Thankfully, Grillby has the sense to alert the rest of Snowdin.

"Where is my son?" A monster shouts in the chaos.

He knows from other nine Genocide timelines, that her son has dusted thanks to the human.

 _There's nothing I could have done about it,_ is what he tells himself. 

"HUSTLE! GET TO HOTLAND!" He yells to them, before taking a shortcut away to where the human child is.

...

He arrives just in time to see them kill the Royal Guard, Dogarresa.

"Don't worry, you'll see each other again soon enough."

Dogamy falls in one hit.

The human continues like they hadn't just killed a soon to be married couple.

.

.

.

He takes a shortcut to Papyrus, standing by an impressive looking puzzle.

"paps."

"SANS! YOU STARTLED ME! YOU NEED TO GIVE ME A WARNING!"

"paps, listen. don't-don't try to fight the kid, it won't end well," he hopes Papyrus heeds his warning. 

"I'M NOT PLANNING TO! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM GOING TO TALK TO THEM!"

"no-bro, that's not what i meant-"

"HEY! IT'S THE HUMAN!" Papyrus turns away from Sans.

"YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT..."

He notices the human is repeating their actions from before - walking over the puzzle.

"...ARE YOU SERIOUS? SANS!!! HELP!!! THEY KEEP WALKING THROUGH MY PUZZLES! THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO LET ME EXPLAIN THEM. THEN THREATEN AND BAFFLE THEM WITH DANGEROUS JAPES."

"well, maybe they don't like japes." Sans suggests.

"EVERYONE LIKES JAPES!"

"what about undyne? doesn't she hate puzzles?"

"SHE HATES PUZZLES, BUT SHE LOVES JAPES."

"that makes sense."

Papyrus turns his attention back to the human, an evil glint is in their eyes. Sans finds himself wondering what the human is planning again.

"HUMAN!! WHAT DO YOU THINK!? PUZZLES OR JAPES?..." Papyrus waits for their answer, but it doesn't come. "OKAY, THIS IS NORMALLY THE PART WHERE YOU EITHER AGREE OR DISAGREE AND DEPENDING ON YOUR ANSWER, WE SAY SOMETHING GREAT IN RESPONSE."

"HERE, WHY DON'T YOU DO THIS PUZZLE YOURSELF?"

Papyrus turns to the machine meant to activate the puzzle, but it seems to malfunction. Nothing happens. Papyrus only walks away.

"hey... puzzles might be fun, if you tried them."

The human looks like they want to say something, but they don't, instead choosing to leave him.

Sans takes a shortcut to where he knows the human is going next.

"what's up?" he asks, leaning on the rock of a steep cliff, just to mess with them.

The child ignores him.

"say..." he appears directly in front of them and blocks their way, "are you following me?"

"Fuck you." they spit at him.

They turn around and walk the opposite way.

"you sure do like to exercise." he comments before they leave his vicinity.

.

.

.

Maybe he can convince Papyrus not to try to talk sense into the human this time around, even though he knows what the outcome will be.

It's a lost cause, he knows.

He does the same thing,  _every single timeline._ And it never works. 

Even in the first Genocide timeline, he'd warned his brother - told him he wasn't an exception, the human would kill  _him_ too. He had been right.

Papyrus believes if anyone tries hard enough, they can be good. But Papyrus doesn't understand that just believing in someone isn't  _enough._

They could have sick intentions for no reason but entertainment. 

It's not as easy as just saying "I believe in you, you can do better!" and they'll suddenly have a change of heart.

It's never that  _simple_ (he wishes it was).

Papyrus will die this timeline, what's the point in trying?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, I wonder what Chara is planning?
> 
> Next chapter is going to be a blast to write.


	3. Spectator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He-
> 
> "IT FEELS... LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH."
> 
> -can do nothing but watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tadaa...!  
> Another song to share!
> 
>  
> 
> [Bonetrousle! (Except you might not want to play this one while reading, it'll probably RUIN the mood...geddit).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EqU6qytJfo)  
> ...  
>  
> 
> [Tokyovania Control-By SharaX. Vocals are done by Melt! I love this one.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOVrfMa8Bfo) :)  
> 

They're standing at the end of a bridge. Papyrus is patiently waiting for the human's arrival as always. 

"HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!" There's a determined look to his face, "BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!"

Several weapons appear, all of which won't be used against the human. Papyrus is too kind.

"WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE!!! CANONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN!!! ARE YOU READY?!?"

"BECAUSE!"

"I!"

"AM!"

"ABOUT!"

"TO DO IT!"

He doesn't do it.

"well?" Sans turns to him, "what's the holdup?"

"HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP!?" He pauses, "I'M... I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!" 

Papyrus looks nervous, they wait for five seconds.

"that, uh, doesn't look very activated." He side glances at the human.

"WELL!!! ...THEY'RE PROBABLY GOING TO WALK THROUGH IT. AND IT WON'T BE FUN AT ALL."

"hmmm... so this human thing was a bust, huh?"

"WELL. I MEAN." Papyrus looks to the side, "I'M EXCITED TO CAPTURE THEM, SO I'LL BECOME A FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN!!! BUT ALL THE TIME I PUT INTO THESE PUZZLES... IT'S KIND OF LIKE THROWING A BIRTHDAY PARTY... "

"without traps and fire?"

"EXACTLY!! IT'S POINTLESS!!! MAYBE YOU WERE RIGHT TO BE LAZY ABOUT PUZZLES."

"me? right about something? really?"

"...YEAH!! WHAT AM I SAYING! YOU'RE STILL COMPLETELY WRONG! I JUST HAVE THE WRONG AUDIENCE! THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH FUN UNDYNE WOULD HAVE HERE!" 

Papyrus begins to list the things Undyne likes.

"FLAMES, VIOLENCE. IT'S RIGHT UP HER ALLEY! SO I WON'T WASTE THIS PUZZLE ON YOU. I JUST HAVE TO APPRECIATE... THE FRIEND I ALREADY HAVE!!!"

The obstacles and weapons slowly retract to their places.

"PHEW!" says Papyrus, turned away. 

He looks back to the dust covered child.

"A VALUABLE LIFE LESSON!!! NYEH HEH HEH!!!"

Papyrus turns the other way and disappears from sight.

The striped shirt wearing child walks to the end of the bridge, Sans follows their movements.

"hmmm... guess we didn't need your help to have a good time after all." Sans casually closes one of his eyelids shut, "... say, i've been thinking. seems like you're gonna fight my brother pretty soon."

"here's some friendly advice." both of his eyes shut, "if you keep going to way you are now..." his eyes open and they're pitch black,

"you're gonna have a bad time."

The human blinks and he's gone.

.

.

.

The town of Snowdin is deserted.

He wonders what MK is still doing there. He feels apprehension creep up his spine as the human approaches him.

"Yo, everyone ran away and hid somewhere," says Monster Kid, "Man, adults can be so dumb sometimes, haha..." 

Sans knows what he's about to say next.

"Don't they know we've got Undyne to protect us!?"

.

.

.

There's a blizzard, it's just like every other timeline. It's difficult to see through, the wind is rushing at him and the snow is flying so quickly it's blurring his vision.

He regrets it, he regrets it all so much. 

"papyrus?" his voice is lost in the blizzard. 

Papyrus' voice however, carries through to him.

"HALT, HUMAN!"

They walk forth. He can just make out his brother's tall stature and the human's.

"HEY, QUIT MOVING WHILE I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

His vibrant red scarf is what he can best see.

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY. FIRST: YOU'RE A FREAKING WEIRDO! NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES, BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE... THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER."

He-

"IT FEELS... LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH."

-can do nothing but watch.

"HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!"

The child advances on his brother. He clenches his fist, his eyes void.

He watches with a mute sort of horror. A twisted feeling clenches his soul.

"HEY, QUIT MOVING! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! BUT WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS... WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR!"

His confidence falters, but it quickly returns.

"I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!"

They move closer. They only stand a meter away from his brother.

"I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING. ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE? WOWIE!! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING!!"

An unpleasant sob comes from his mouth. He covers his eyes.

_This only gets harder each time._

"I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!"

He can't look.

He swears, it hurts even more than it did last time.

 _~~~~**CRRRAACKK!** _

"W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED..."

Papyrus' skull rolls of his shoulders.

"BUT..."

He says, even as his body dissolves into dust and is carried away by the blizzard.

"ST...STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN... EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO! I... I PROMISE..."

His skull begins to fracture. The crack slowly spreads to his eye, and to the other. It chips and dusts and soon his skull is gone and all that's left is his scarf.

The psychotic child clenches their fist around the red fabric, picking it up.

"Sans, I know you're there."

But he's already gone before they can look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, no more dialogue for a while.  
> Papyrus and Sans have WAY too much dialogue. 80% of everything is dialogue... this is probably what it's like to do one of those "watching the show" fanfictions. It's fun to read, but GOLLY it takes a lot out of you to write, switching between two tabs back and forth is not ideal.
> 
> The title for this chapter, "Spectator." Sans is the "spectator" because he watches the human massacre almost the entire underground. In games, spectators don't do anything at all... that's what Sans is doing - nothing.  
> The irony.
> 
> Bye Paps.


	4. 1x3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it's impossible after all.
> 
> Maybe monster kind is doomed to be this thing's plaything for all eternity.
> 
> Maybe they'll never get a "happy ending."
> 
> But damn him if he doesn't at least try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are so many pun-intentional puns here.  
> Sorry.
> 
> Song of the chapter!
> 
> [Toy Pianos, it's too good, I'm hooked already (by: SharaX)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4B60E31lvM)  
> .
> 
>  
> 
> :)

He ran.

...

Waterfall is where he stops, head against the damp rock of the room full of luminescent echo flowers.

A sound escapes his throat, choked, for a split second it feels like he's about to go into hysterics - but the bitter laughs instead dissolve into shattered sobs. He's quiet enough that the echo flowers don't catch him, but he allows one to carry a message.

A waterfall of tears stream down his cheekbones.

He slaps his "perpetual" smile back onto his skull.

...

He vanishes from the wishing room.

 _" I'll be waiting." _repeats one echo flower.

.

.

.

He finds his telescope - a gift from his "father" - for just a second, it's all wrong. 

Everything is off.

And a thought drifts into his mind.

~~_Shouldn't there be red paint here?_ ~~

He can feel a terrible headache coming on. His mind seems to be grappling for nonexistent memories.

.

.

.

He's near Undyne's home. In the previous timelines, he's never thought to visit the captain of the Royal Guard after Papyrus' falling. He's not quite sure why he's there.

...Is it just curiosity?

Asgore, he hopes not. 

...

The state in which she's in, isn't a pleasant one, he sees as he stands behind tall grass.

Undyne's kitchen counter seems to have been prepped for Papyrus' cooking lesson. His rib cage clenches in on itself. 

"I should have seen this coming..." Undyne says. Fists clenched, "I should have..." She holds a phone in her hand, sitting in a corner.

Judging by the voice coming from the phone, it's Alphys. 

And he knows what - or rather who - they're talking about.

 ~~~~ ~~~~He's snapped out of his thoughts when a sudden yell tears into him.

"Who the fuck is there?!"

A glowing spear careens towards him, his senses scream danger - he contemplates  _not_ dodging for a moment, but he decides against it. It's sharp edge lodges into the cavern walls behind him instead of his skull.

_She must think I'm the human..._

" ~~~~ya wanna kill me or something? COD you not?"

"...Sans?"

He'd half been expecting to hear her scream bloody murder for his pun. But of course not.

"yup, that's the name. and you are?"

"Stop horsing around," Undyne says, clearly not in the mood.

"i've been standing right here since you tried to take my head off with that spear, i haven't really been going 'around.'"

 **"...H-hello? U-Undyne? D-did you f-find anyone there?"** It's a different voice - Alphys.

"Yeah. Papyrus' brother." Undyne speaks into her phone. ~~  
~~

**"O-oh..."**

"I'll call you back later, yeah?"

**"A-alright. T-talk to you th-then!"**

**Click.**

They walk into the clearing.

"How'd you even dodge that?" Undyne asks, looking bewildered.

"magic." For effect, he wiggles his fingers in front of her face.

"Bullshit, you don't even train."

"what, do you TROUT me?"

"...Now's not the time. I need to capture that human." Undyne says seriously.

 _"It's no use,"_ he whispers, but Undyne doesn't catch it.

"Train with me," she says suddenly.

"...what?" He asks confused, wondering if he'd heard her right. 

He was almost regretting coming to visit the captain of the Royal Guard. He should have expected something like this.

"I  _said,_ train with me. You must be in desperate need for some training with how out of shape you've gotta be with lazing around so much," she says, looking exasperated.

"nah, i think i'm good."

"Look, we need all the help we can get to stop that... that  _thing_ that's dusting monsters out there. Now, you got any experience?"

He _really_ hated that she was pushing him into this. 

...

Guess he'd just have to bore her so much with the DETERMINATION to not try at all.

"no getting outta this, huh?"

"Damn it! Don't you want to aven- slaughter that thing?!"

...

"y'know, paps really did believe in them."

He hadn't expected that to slip out of his mouth.

...

"he really truly believed the kid had some good left in them,"  _what a joke._

"I'm no good with this kind of shit." Undyne sighed, "All  _I'm_ good at is beating the living daylights out of someone. And that's what I'm going to. That's also what I'm gonna teach _you_ to do."

"...are you serious?"

"DUH! Of course! I'm never joking around!"

"my bad, it's nice to meet you 'Never Joking Around.'"

Undyne has a look on her face that suggests she's straining herself by not sucker punching him in the face.

Maybe he'll be able to slip away by punning her to death.

"Come on! Let that anger out! NGAAHHH!!" She tries to "hype" him up for training.

"i'm so mad i could KRILL someone."

Undyne ignores his pun.

"Alright, now tell me your stats."

...

_Shit._

...

_Undyne's gonna have a fit._

"triple 1's," Sans says in the most nonchalant way possible.

Undyne checks him, a look in her eyes that Sans can read all too easily.

CHECK -

1 HP

1 AT

1 DF

_ Triple 1's. He wasn't lying. _

Undyne isn't sure what to say.

"what, catfish got your tongue?"

...

"Sans, why are your stats so low?" She's uncharacteristically quiet. Undyne looks at him, a worried look on her face, "For Asgore's sake, it looks like you're on the verge of  _Falling Down!_ "

He winces.  _This was a bad idea after all._ He draws his gaze to the ground.

"i guess you COD say... i've been having a real bad time lately."

"Sans,  _what happened?!"_ Undyne is sick of his secret keeping habit.

Sans contemplates telling her - before realizing he's quite sick of his secret keeping habit as well. Clearly, this timeline is bound to end the same way as the other nine genocidal timelines. It'll go on and on and on until - he realizes with mortification - he'll stop caring.

And he'll die  _over and over and over..._

...

"The Anomaly." He says, conveying an unsure look on his face.

~~"I'll make you like me so much... Your WHOLE LIFE will revolve around me!! FUHUHUHUHU!!!"~~

"What the fuck is that supposed to be?!" Undyne yells at him.

He doesn't elaborate. 

_I need to think this through first. Or else the human will catch on and..._

"i need to go," he says, bringing an abrupt end to their talk.

"WAIT JUST A FUCKING MOMEN-!"

He vanishes.

.

.

.

He has changed too much in this timeline already. He doesn't want Undyne to be late to "greet" the human child.

.

.

.

He doesn't watch Undyne's fight. The first (and last) time he had, was in the second timeline. He'd been haunted by her melting, scared that he'd meet the same fate because of the injection of DETERMINATION swimming through his bones.

Perhaps the reason he doesn't melt is because of an incident in the past that shattered his father.

_The blast pulls in his father, who stands in the immediate vicinity of the CORE, his creation. He watches as dark energy seems to drag his father away from him. He doesn't dare try to get close or try to save him out of fear he'll be caught in the strong gravitational pull as well._

_"DAD!" he calls instead. His father doesn't answer._

_A couple others who work with his father are drawn in, including a child who screams for her brother. Helpless, he watches as his father melts and that monster child pleads._

_The wind howls strongly and he closes his eyes as it tries to reel him in as well - but then it ends. All that is left is the debris and him in the middle of it all._

_Why doesn't anyone remember his father? Or anyone else who died in the blast?_

_Why only him?_

But it doesn't matter. What matters, is the human child, the murderer, the anomaly.

If he dies erasing that demon from the world, then so be it. He'll do it. He'll fucking do it.

It's just a matter of  _how._

...

Considering it all, the human will likely just commit suicide the moment he catches them, only to RELOAD and reappear at their last SAVE point. It would be difficult the second time - impossible, if it were ever possible in the first place. 

He just can't think of a good enough plan.

Maybe it's impossible after all.

Maybe monster kind is doomed to be this thing's plaything for all eternity.

Maybe they'll never get a "happy ending."

But damn him if he doesn't at least try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's something I wrote but deleted later because it didn't seem to fit:
> 
> "triple 1's," Sans says in the most nonchalant way possible.
> 
> "111 HP, 111 AT, 111 DF? That's not even half bad!"
> 
> "you got it all wrong-"
> 
> ...
> 
> FIGHT START!
> 
> A fight is initiated. 
> 
> ...
> 
> CHECK-
> 
> Undyne-
> 
> 1500 HP
> 
> 50 AT
> 
> 20 DF
> 
> Is still wondering how you have such a high Attack and Defense.
> 
> ...
> 
> ACT-
> 
> "hey Undyne, i know you're eager and all, but you got it all wr-"
> 
> "Quit stalling! You can take plenty of hits from me, stop chickening!"
> 
> "but i'm a skeleton."
> 
> TURN END!
> 
> He finds a shield in his hands - he throws it away and dodges the spears instead. 
> 
> "No dammit! You're supposed face the attacks head on!"
> 
> ...
> 
> FLEE
> 
> Sans ends the fight.
> 
> FIGHT END!
> 
> ...
> 
> "by 'triple 1's' i meant 1 HP, 1 AT and 1 DF."
> 
> "Wait. No shit?"
> 
> CHECK
> 
> 1 HP
> 
> 1 AT
> 
> 1 DF
> 
> ...Triple 1's. He wasn't lying.
> 
> Undyne isn't sure what to say.
> 
> "what, catfish got your tongue?"
> 
> (LOL)


	5. 11th (?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wishes sometimes, he wasn't able to remember all the timelines. That he could just be the same as everyone else, unaware.
> 
> But that's not right.
> 
> He needs to remember, for everyone who can't. Wishing to forget is a selfish wish. A wishful thought.
> 
> ...
> 
> But sometimes there's a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that suggests something is missing. 
> 
> That no, he does not remember everything. No, his memories aren't completely reliable.
> 
> ...
> 
> That thought scares him, it scares him so much.
> 
> Because if his memories aren't alright...
> 
>  
> 
> _Nothing is._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I really like the way this one turned out, I don't even know why.
> 
> Songs to share!
> 
> [Megalovania - the Orchestrated version!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wOxAE38WWs)
> 
> .
> 
>  
> 
> :)

_"You're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT."_

_The wind is howling..._

_..._

~~~~Despite having not watched Undyne's fight, it's as if each time he falls asleep, he re-watches it - along with Papyrus' falling.

But that's fine. 

That just means his memories stay fresh.

.

.

.

He wishes sometimes, he wasn't able to remember all the timelines. That he could just be the same as everyone else, unaware.

But that's not right.

He needs to remember, for everyone who can't. Wishing to forget is a selfish wish. A wishful thought.

...

But sometimes there's a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that suggests something is missing. 

That no, he does not remember everything. No, his memories aren't completely reliable.

...

That thought scares him, it scares him so much.

Because if his memories aren't alright...

_Nothing is._

.

.

.

 ~~~~He wakes up on his ~~and Papyrus'~~ lumpy couch. The room is completely dark. 

His pet rock looks hungry.

The clock ticks unnervingly as time drains away second by second. He overfeeds his pet rock by covering it's entire surface in sprinkles.

He's letting his pet rock indulge. In just a couple hours, this incident will have never even happened!

They'll be back at square one, but that means he'll get to hear _Toriel_ , the lady behind the door for a short time -

.

.

.

But who even _is_ Toriel? 

Who...

_Who is Toriel?_

He has never heard that name. Not once. Yet he associates it with the lady behind the door...why? The lady behind the door has  _never_ told Sans her name before, an unspoken agreement between the two of them to keep their personal lives untold.

Sans stops every other thought going through his head and tries to recall something, anything-

 ~~"Hello! I think we may...know each other?"~~ _  
_

~~"oh hey... I recognize your voice, too."~~

~~"I am..."~~

"TORIEL." Sans says out loud, conviction in his voice.

Then comes the splitting headache.

What did he just remember again?

...

 _Right. The lady behind the door - her name is Toriel._ The name becomes ingrained in his skull, even as the image of Toriel begins to fade away in his mind. He won't forget.

_He won't forget._

~~Don't forget.~~

...

He hastily scrawls her name in an old journal he carries in case the idea for a good joke arises. The information is only going to temporarily be kept in his journal for jokes.

 **"Toriel,"** it says. He lists the color of her robes, her white fur, the fact she has a goat like appearance.

**"Hello! I think we may... know each other?"**

**"oh hey... I recognize your voice, too."**

**"I am TORIEL."**

He records their conversation, he realizes it looks to be, unfortunately, cut short.

...

After his adrenaline rush, the stabbing headache is back. But there's still the matter of why he knows the name of the lady behind the door's in the first place when he shouldn't.

And then the matter of where that memory came from.

He thinks about it long and hard, but really - it's a fruitless search. The only two words he's managed are "Asgore's clone" and he's quite sure he made that up from imagination, he records that in his joke journal anyway.

"dammit." He presses his skull together as if to keep it from splitting in half.

...Maybe if he gives himself another does of DETERMINATION he'll remember?

No.

He can't take that risk. 

Sans stands up abruptly, too abruptly. The ground seems to tilt a whole 45 degrees before it rights itself again.

_God, what's wrong with me?_

He feels as if he's played Ring Around the Rosie five hours too long.

Or maybe like he's been playing a game of Helicopter with just himself.

Or maybe like he's been hanging upside down for a tad too long.

Or maybe like someone decided to using him as a sling shot projectile.

...Enough. It might as well be all of those combined.

The splitting headache slowly subsides to an incessant sting in his temples.

_Ah. Fuck._

His vision is still split in two.

_Blink._

His SOUL shakes like it's about to crack and red drips to the gold tiled floor.

A jagged cut runs across his ribs and sternum.

_Blink._

He falls back on the couch gasping.

_No. It hasn't happened yet._

"Yet," that's the key word. 

.

.

.

He can't explain the visions he's getting. Sometimes, they're oh so clear, snow flurrying to the ground wildly, light splashing across the golden tiles, dusty sleeves.

But then there are the blurry ones. Where the sound of a whoopee cushion is followed by laughter, a stick wielding child waiting for a judging, not a dunking. What are these visions? Memories? He doesn't know what to call the headache inducing "memories."

He swears they aren't his memories. But... who else could they belong to but him?

Why doesn't he remember these "happy" memories? He can tell when there's no oppressive aura hanging around, these blurry memories, as unclear as they are, carry a certain lightness that he only feels around his brother and the lady behind the door.

...

He remembers his current memories because of the DETERMINATION shot he gave himself in the first timeline.

But was that really the first timeline? He's starting to question it.

Could he possibly be missing a timeline worth of memories? Memories of a time he hadn't had to give himself a shot of DETERMINATION in hopes it would be enough to kill the human child?

He pulls out his notebook and pen.

_"possible "first" timeline?"_

_"memories only accumulated from "second" timeline to "eleventh" timeline. memories of "first" timeline, nonexistent due to no determination shot."_

He notes.

It makes sense, but what's the probability of a genocidal child sparing everyone? ZERO, that's what.

He can't imagine the child sparing  _anyone_ _,_ it doesn't make any sense.

Why be a pacifist only to forsake the very timeline you've saved before by going genocidal?

He doesn't know how many "Pacifist" timelines there are, it's useless to count - but the point is, there definitely  _was_ at least one. There has to be.

The clock moves steadily with cutting  _tick tick ticks_ , a count down to his eventual death in the Judgement Hall. Reminding him he'll have to face the child soon. 

He'll see their unblemished skin, dusty sleeves, that glinting knife that will be his end, those red eyes, a golden heart locket, their empty smile. They'll dodge all his attacks with practiced ease and they'll counterattack with fury and  _determination._  

They'll dance the same old dance.

He'll get tired, and he'll ask if they'd lay down their weapon. 

But they'll only keep attacking relentlessly, until...

Until they finally land a hit.

And blood will drip down to the floor like the water in the caverns of Waterfall, it'll leak out his mouth too, he'll put his hand to the wound and he'll just look at it and stand up. He'll say he's going to Grillby's, ask Papyrus if he wants anything. 

He'll step out of the human's view and the awfully peaceful thing called dying will start to happen. His fingers will start disintegrating, and then his hands and feet and skull and then he'll be gone.

Gone.

_Gone._

Fallen, dead, dusted...

EXP.

The last thing he'll hear?

The sound of the human's LOVE reaching 20.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [LV Up Sound >:)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaa1ii4Glgs)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Headaches suck. I had a KILLER headache once and I literally couldn't move my head faster than a sloth could without feeling like a 12 inch nail went through one side of my head and out the other.  
> No actually, the sloth was faster.


	6. FIGHT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "S-sans, p-promise m-me."
> 
> ...
> 
> "...i can't do that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Megalovania (the best piano duet in existence)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycwlpe-g9po&index=289&list=PLjr4imAUPB5XyXM8m_gaz7dJy6F_L7499)

_"...that expression that you're wearing..."_

_"you're really kind of a freak, huh?"_

.

.

.

Sans wakes up on his couch, sweat dripping down his skull. 

He has half an hour left before he has to go to the Judgement Hall.

His joke journal is filled to the brim not with jokes, but with unorganized and near undecipherable information of the pacifist timeline. He still doesn't understand the human's motives.

Unless it isn't the human's motives.

That of course, hasn't been ruled out yet. He really does hope that's the case, because that means there's a "glimmer of a good person" still left in there.

Psh, what's the chance of that?

.

.

.

Twenty-nine minutes of just sitting on the couch can get boring, he realizes. No new memories have popped up since the earlier outbreak. His killer headache is quite nonexistent, he's stuck wondering what the memories from before were.

Never has he recalled anything about a pacifist timeline in the "past."

But no use in thinking about something you'll probably never really know.

He stands up to reach his towering height of five feet and stretches, his joints giving a satisfying pop. 

 

In the back of his skull, he imagines Papyrus yelling at him not to pop his joints like that - and that it'll give him arthritis.

 

"welp. time to go," he says to himself, donning a furred blue jacket, his usual shorts and his old pink slippers.

He appears in the Judgement Hall, the spacial distortion disappearing as quickly as it came.

He's early.

He sighs and sags beside one of the pillars in the hall.

He can't help but ask himself what this is all for, it'll all just reset.

_What a hassle._

He tells himself not to think that way.

...

Footsteps echo through the hall, sure and confident. 

"heya. you've been busy, huh?" Sans begins his monologue. "so, i've got a question for ya." 

He closes his eyes.

"do you think even the worst person can change...? that everybody can be a good person, if they just try?"

The human takes a step forward, he chuckles as ominously as he can, with the knowledge he'll be dying soon.

"all right. well, here's a better question." He lets his eyes go empty, "do you wanna have a bad time?"

"'cause if you take another step forward... you are REALLY not going to like what happens next."

The human takes a daring step forth.

"welp. sorry, old lady. this is why i never make promises."

FIGHT START!

...

"it's a beautiful day outside. birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you..."

**"Should be burning in hell."**

 ...

"huh. always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first." ****

...

"what? you think i'm just gonna stand there and take it?"

 ...

"our reports showed a massive anomaly in the time space continuum. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting..."

"until suddenly, everything ends."

"heh heh heh... that's your fault isn't it?"

 ...

"you can't understand how this feels."

"knowing that one day, without any warning... it's all going to be reset."

"look. i gave up trying to go back a long time ago."

"and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore, either."

"cause even if we do... we'll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right?"

"to be blunt... it makes it kind of hard to give it my all."

"...or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy...? hell if i know."

"all i know is... seeing what comes next... i can't afford not to care anymore."

...

"ugh... that being said... you, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh? ... listen."

"i know you didn't answer me before, but... somewhere in there. i can feel it. there's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. the memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend? c'mon, buddy. do you remember me? please, if you're listening... let's forget all of this, ok? just lay down your weapon, and... well, my job will be a lot easier."

At that, the human stops and just stares at him like he has two heads.

 

It isn't new dialogue, but something seems different this time.

 

Their hand begins to...shake. Tears run down their face.

They look so young. Like a child. They  _are_ a child.

It's such a sudden change in demeanor, Sans finds himself wide eyed. 

Their grip on their knife lessens.

He finds himself growing just the slightest bit hopeful.

They seem to be having an internal battle, sweat drips down their chin.

"I-"

But then, just as their weapon begins to slip through their fingers - their grip returns with vengance, knuckles white.

He finds himself disappointed. What had he been expecting? He sighs.

 

The human leaps at him clumsily, eyes burning with hatred once again. He dodges easily. 

"welp, it was worth a shot. guess you like doing things the hard way, huh?"

**CRRACK!**

The human dies right after his first move, body stuck between a row of bones, impaled through the shoulder.

He can't say he's never seen the sight before.

.

.

.

_** RELOAD. ** _

He doesn't start his usual spiel, the human is different.

It isn't the same child - just the same dusty clothes, brown hair and red eyes.

Nothing about them scream violence - rather the opposite. A nice change of pace, really.

"S-sans..."

They talk before he does. The human child never talks much.

"I...I don't have long."

"what are you talking about?" Sans inquires.

"D... do you r-remember?"

"who are you?"

...

"F-frisk."

Silence.

"sounds like someone i should know," Sans remarks softly to himself. He doesn't miss the glimmer of... something, in the human child's eyes.

The human's voice is soft, kind - not cold and merciless.

...

"buddy. what's going on?"

The child summons their brilliant vermilion soul and walks closer to him so he stands only a meter away. Alarmed, he shuffles backward slightly - not that it makes much of a difference.

Alright, maybe it feels as though he should know this kid or something - but that doesn't mean he's just going to blindly trust them.

He's never had a close up look at the human child's soul, despite having killed them so many times.

Then he sees what they're trying to show him.

A looming shadow behind their soul shimmers. Black wisps licking out like flames.

"kid - what is that?" He stares in fascinated horror at the black enveloping the child's red soul.

"It's... my friend - b-but something's happened to them. Something's corrupting them into making me commit genocide. I... I d-don't know what, but you need to get rid of whatever it is. You c-can't kill them though."

Don't kill the corrupted creep? He sort of already has - much more than a couple times. He's not planning on saying that out loud anytime soon.

"explain."

"Chara, th-that's their name. The f-first human to fall into the U-underground. I aw-awoke them after m-my fall into the Underground, w-with my DETERMINATION. Their s-spirit somehow b-became stuck to my s-soul.

They fo-followed me ar-around wherever I-I went, l-like a ghost - but f-friendly. We SPARED ev-everyone."

"hold on. you were a pacifist?"

Sans confirms in his head that his "new" memories aren't made up.

"I w-was. In the end, w-we got to the s-surface - y-you were ha-happy, ev-everyone w-was happy. But th-then Ch-chara st-started a-acting w-weird."

The shadow of latched onto the human child's soul shivers.

"Th-th- They..."

"kid-" Sans grows worried.

"Y-you ne-need to h-h-help u-us... You... Y-you're the on-only one wh-who c-can do it."

Their stuttering becomes worse. Their knees collapse and so do they, Sans catches them before they can hit the ground and crack their head open.

"S-sans, p-promise m-me."

...

"...i can't do that."

He puts the human child down, eyes regretful.

Their soul retracts back into their body and Sans backs away, preparing himself for his rematch with the  _other_ one - but he's quite sure he's going to be dying this reload - he has a feeling he won't be able to grace the human's expression with a description quite soon.

There's a sudden shift in the human child, their blood red eyes irritated and DETERMINED, more so than before. The child stands up, no tremors in their arms compared to the different child from before.

They equip the Real Knife.

"heya. you look pretty frustrated about something." They stare at him, and he stares back, "guess i'm pretty good at my job, huh?"

FIGHT START!

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "...that expression that you're wearing..."
> 
> "you're really kind of a freak, huh?"
> 
> That's what Sans says before he fights the human if the human has already killed him twice or more times and RELOADS to before the fight.  
> \--------------------------------  
> "that expression that you're wearing..."
> 
> "well, i won't grace it with a description."
> 
> That's what Sans says before he fights the human if the human kills him and RELOADS to before the fight.  
> \--------------------------------
> 
> Yeahh...


	7. Amalgamate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That human child is the pure embodiment of DETERMINATION. Whatever that shadow enveloping their soul is, has got to be pretty freaking strong to overpower them.
> 
>  _pretty DETERMINED,_ he remarks in his head.
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> What if he got rid of that DETERMINATION?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop! A long chapter! ... Sort of.
> 
> Song to share :D
> 
>  
> 
> [Megalomaniac (I'm a Glitchtale fan!) And holy mac and cheese, this is good](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPeQ6upY124)

 

* * *

 

_ **RESTART** _

 

* * *

 

This is the eleventh one. The eleventh reset.

_Or is it...?_

~~Nine~~  Ten times, the child wearing pink and blue stripes has commit GENOCIDE. Massacred nearly the entire monster population, laughed gleefully like it was all just a harmless game -  _playthings just for them!_

~~_'THAT'S YOUR FAULT, ISN'T IT?'_ ~~

In a way, it  _is_ all just a game.

Because one moment, he's bathing in the bright yellow light of the Judgement Hall, clutching a horrible gash on his ribs and sternum - 

And the next, he's in the middle of reading "Peek a Boo With Fluffy Bunny" to Papyrus as his bedtime story.

 

He doesn't even stumble in the middle of Papyrus' story.

.

.

.

"night paps."

"GOODNIGHT SANS."

 

But no, he knows he won't be having a goodnight.

His dreams will be plagued by that sick child, their demented grin as they  _beheaded_ his brother. The psychotic laughing that echoed through the caverns, their dust covered sleeves, their unhinged red eyes, their sickly pale skin, their shrieks as they perished, their crimson blood splattering on the golden tiles -

_This has happened before._

.

.

.

He doesn't feel so good.

.

.

.

What is he doing, dawdling around when he could be doing something?

Something like helping the human child and their... friend.

They're depending on him - it's been awhile since anyone has really depended on him. And it isn't just the human child, it's the entire Underground counting on him.

They shouldn't. They really shouldn't - but it's happening anyway.

He wishes someone else - someone like Undyne maybe - was given the "gift" of remembering, someone fit for the job. After all, he's just a lazy sack of bones who falls asleep on the job.

But no, the responsibility is his now.

_come on, thinking cap on._

Dammit, how does the kid expect him to get rid of - whatever that thing is - when he's never analyzed it, let alone seen it ever before in his life?

That human child is the pure embodiment of DETERMINATION. Whatever that shadow enveloping their soul is, has got to be pretty freaking strong to overpower them.

 _pretty DETERMINED,_ he remarks in his head.

.

.

.

What if he got rid of that DETERMINATION?

.

.

.

_time to make a visit to Alph's._

 

He remembers back when _Flowey_ (he thinks with distaste) was in control of the timelines. There are plenty of memories he'd rather not have trudged up by thinking about that psychotic weed, but hey, what can it hurt other than his emotional state?

He appears in the sweltering place called Hotland in front of the Lab door.

He knocks on the door softly, no answer.

He knocks a little harder, and he hears a loud clang from the other side.

He waits a few seconds - he knows someone's home. He raises his arm to knock for the third time but then the door slides open, revealing Alphys in her night clothes - which means her day clothes just slightly disheveled after having been slept in. He drops his raised fist.

"S-sans?" 

It seems that she's developed a stutter.

"heya alph. miss me?"

...

"Sans, wh-what are you d-doing here? What time even is it?" She tries to quell her stutters in futile attempts, Sans notices, but keeps quiet.

"yeah uh, i need ta know something." Sans says, not quite fully prepared to tell her much of anything.

"A-alright, why don't you uh, come in f-first?"

Sans steps in, feeling nostalgic already - looking back at his time in the Lab though, it wasn't too happy of a time.

"S-so, what do you n-need?" Alphys looks to him.

Despite long spans of not talking, they're still friends - he's glad for that. 

Unwillingly, he thinks of the second genocidal timeline and her outburst at Undyne's fight.

"that machine that extracts liquid DT, do ya still have it?" Sans knows that she does.

"W-why d-do you need that m-m-machine?" Alphys replies hesitantly.

"don't ask," he says instead, "does it work?"

"Y-yes but..." Her sentence dies off.

Sans is finished with the talking part, it's time to start doing what he came to do.

"alph, mind showing it to me?"

Sans contemplates just going there himself, but that would be rude - he can't just stroll around like he owns the place. He isn't a part of the science team anymore, not since he quit.

"Uh..." She trails.

She's stalling his time.

"alph," he starts with a dark tone, she flinches slightly, "what're you hiding?"

"I-I um, the p-place is a m-mess and I h-haven't c-cleaned up f-for a w-while..."

"alph, i've seen this place with the tables filled up with junk from Waterfall with mud tracks blanketing the floor, and 'sides, i've even got a self-sustaining trash tornado - what could there possibly be that could shock me?"

Sans starts walking of his own accord to the True Lab, Alphys trailing along behind him, a look of guilt on her face. Sans has a feeling it's got to do with DETERMINATION.

"so alph. how're the fallen monsters? heard you're injecting them with DT, is it doing any good?" He knows Snowdrake's mother is one of the volunteered.

Alphys blanches and goes white.

"I... S-sans... I need to tell you s-something." 

Sans stops walking and turns around, what could she possibly need to tell him?

"The DT e-experiments, they uh... they h-haven't really..."

Sans waits, before Alphys shakes her head with a dismissive "N-never mind."

They go down the old shaky elevator, mood tense. Sans keeps his guard up - Alphys isn't telling him something.

The doors open up to a dark hallway - it's just the way he remembers it, just a whole lot darker and... stickier? He can hear something dripping to the floor slowly.

The floor is tracked with something white.

"alph - what in the world...?"

Something skids around the corner and runs at the two of them, flecking bits of white everywhere. Alarmed, he summons a bone and flicks at at the thing coming at them. It stops dead in it's tracks.

"Endogeny, c-come here." Alphys says.

It trots to them and Sans sees up close what it really is - a massive dripping dog. He steps back, wondering if he'd messed up his aim with his bone attack.

But no, it's chewing on the bone.

"N-no, you'll s-spoil y-your appetite, we d-don't want that, d-do we?"

Endogeny is completely harmless, he sees that now. He feels a little guilty for attacking it, but it isn't hurt at all. He isn't sure what to say.

"so alph," Alphys flinches, "i'd really like to know what happened here, but i haven't really got the time for that, would you mind?" They've got some hours left in the night, but he doesn't know how long the modifications will take. Better safe than sorry.

"Oh y-yeah." She seems at ease, and relieved he didn't demand answers, "Th-this way."

They walk along, the ceiling lights are all turned off, the bulbs seem to have shattered at some point and gone unfixed. He doesn't mind too much though. The two of them pass by other monsters like Endogeny - he catches a glimpse of Snowdrake's mother.

He's... a little more than horrified. But not because Alphys was the one who did all this - but because DETERMINATION did this to them. 

DETERMINATION.

He grazes a thumb across where he injected himself with DT. The nick in his bone is gone. What could have happened though, is it possible he could have melted if he hadn't been careful?

Alphys' voice interrupts his disturbing thought train, he's grateful for the distraction.

"Here w-we are."

The machine is a big hulking skull, akin to what Flowey had looked like... in a different time when he'd let his guard down and he'd gained the six human souls.

Not a time he likes thinking about.

 

"alphys," Sans says, "i think i'm good now. you can go back to sleeping. i'll find my way out later when i'm done."

...

"Sans, y-you haven't t-told me what you're p-planning to do with the m-machine," she states anxiously after a handful of seconds.

"and i didn't plan on telling you from the beginning. as i said before, you can go now." Sans deadpans, hoping it's enough to shoo Alphys away.

"S-sans, n-now that you know what m-my secret is, you can t-trust me with th-this." Alphys pushes.

"nope. you wouldn't understand anyway."

Sans then begins to just ignore her, walking to the machine with determined footsteps. All the Amalgamates are sleeping, he's alone with just Alphys now. He just needs to adjust the machine's targeting system, instead of the target being the DETERMINATION from the soul, he'll make it target everything that  _isn't_ the soul in the extraction chamber.

"Hey. Sans, y-you know you don't w-work here anymore, r-right?" Alphys tries to say boldly, it doesn't quite work.

"yeah. don't worry, i won't be long. sleeping would certainly help to pass the time, alphys," he says steadily.

"Ugh f-fine, at least tell m-me... who asked y-you to do this?" Alphys asks.

"what makes you think someone asked me to do this? for all you know, i could be doing this of my own accord."

"Are you?" Alphys looks suspiciously.

"am i?" Sans just asks back.

"I'm j-just surprised you haven't m-made any science puns so f-far." Alphys says.

"i'm _positive_ you should be sleeping right now," he'd forgotten all about his laid back punny other personality. 

"I j-just jinxed it, d-didn't I?"

" _atom_ some numbers to your sleeping schedule, it might _C_ _urium_  some of your tiredness."

"Th-that was a physics joke and chemistry pun in one sentence..."

"aren't you tired?  _to the bone?"_

All the while, Sans kept on with his work.

"...Sans, I-I know what y-you're doing." Alphys says, looking down. He's dodging her questions.

"i know that you know that i know that you know." Sans doesn't lift his head to look at her.

"J-just... t-tell me anything. Anything, p-please. I'm w-worried." Alphys tries, "You c-can't keep dodging forever."

Sans winces at her choice of words, Alphys wonders why.

 

_*The easiest enemy in the game. Can only deal 1 damage._

_*He c_ _an't keep dodging forever. Keep attacking._  

 

"alright." Sans finally says, "if i give you a clue, promise you'll leave me be 'till i'm done?"

Alphys nods eagerly.

Sans picks and chooses his words carefully and prepares himself for her reaction.

"do you remember those ancient glyphs in waterfall? **'The Angel... The One Who Has Seen The Surface... They will return. And the underground will go empty.'** that prophecy isn't bullshit like a lot of monsters say. it's... pretty true."

"W-what are you implying...? The U-Underground's going to go e-empty soon? We'll b-be freed?" Alphys goes off, "What's that m-machine got to do w-with anything though...? What are y-you planning t-to do w-with that m-machine? ...Sans!"

"hey. you gave me your word you'd leave me be." Before Alphys can retort, he adds, "stay out of it." 

He knows how nosy Alphys can be at times.

"But... alright. F-fine." Alphys gives in - after all, she can just watch with her cameras!

"thanks." That's where the conversation ends.

Alphys walks away from Sans, what could Sans be planning to use the machine on, if not a human? The Angel. Alphys is conflicted.

While Sans fights with his decision to tell Alphys part of the story. Maybe he shouldn't have done it, but not like he can do anything about his choice now.

He works all the way through the night into the early hours of the morning, Papyrus will be waking up pretty soon. 

His job looks slightly rushed from the outside, but he doesn't have the luxury or time for making it look presentable.

Sans pulls away from his modifications. His eye lights dim from burning the midnight oil. 

He's done.

Finally.

He stands up and drops his borrowed tools back where they belong. He takes a glance at the camera in the corner of the room.

He hopes Alphys heads his warning to stay out of his business. Interference won't do any good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are finally looking up, aren't they?
> 
> Beware.
> 
> >:)
> 
> "The Angel... The One Who Has Seen The Surface... They will return. And the underground will go empty."
> 
> Here, Chara is the "Angel." When the prophecy says "They will return" I think it means Chara who was "brought back" by Frisk. "And the underground will go empty" can be interpreted two ways: Everyone is killed, or everyone is saved, but the prophecy more refers to the second interpretation in which everyone is saved because Angels are thought of as "good." Chara is a big help to Frisk in doing the Pacifist run by providing information through flavor text and making it so that it's easier to spare monsters by making their name tags yellow to say they're ready to be spared (or at least that's how I see it). To me, Chara is a good person and in other words, the Angel. Until they get corrupted by the anomaly and become a demon as is said at the end of a Genocide run as they call them self "the demon that comes when people call its name" therefore rendering the prophecy false in calling them an angel. That's because the very definition of an anomaly is something that deviates from what is expected.
> 
> Whoo, that was long.


	8. It's Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "P-p-please don't-don't k-kill m-m-me..." Alphys pleads for MERCY.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the tables turn.
> 
>  
> 
> [...Why did I choose the Waterfall theme? I don't know](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1iHMHvh2dE&list=PLjr4imAUPB5XyXM8m_gaz7dJy6F_L7499&index=280).
> 
>  
> 
> :)

Sans runs it all through his head again, his brother's voice startles him out of his stupor.

"SANS! I'M GOING OUT TO RE CALIBRATE MY PUZZLES! YOU BETTER NOT BE LATE FOR SENTRY DUTY!"

"don't worry bro, i won't."

"THAT'S GOOD!"

Papyrus walks out the front door, red scarf swishing in the wind. The door promptly slams shut again with his brother's triumphant "NYEHEHE"s. 

Sans sighs, staring at the plate of "spaghetti" on the table left there for him. He leaves it be, even though it'll soon be cold. He doesn't plan on doing anything with it other than stare holes into it.

If his plan doesn't work, the plate of spaghetti will be scalding hot again in another time.

He slips his slippers on and trudges out into the snow. 

He locks the door, knowing Papyrus would berate him if he forgot.

Snow cascades gently down from who knows where. The snow on the ground is still free of dust. He sees the doors to the Ruins have not yet creaked open, as he watches from the shadowy forest.

As always, there is a tough-looking branch on the ground. One he remembers snapping in half numerous times.

Just shy of five minutes later, the double doors of the ruins open. Out walks the human, toy knife in hand, covered head to toe with dust that could easily be mistaken as snow.

But in the Ruins, it does not snow. That he knows.

They step over the tough-looking branch, and he loudly snaps that branch in two just three seconds later. They don't flinch or look backwards.

When they reach the gate, Sans walks up to them and says his first line.

 **"H U M A N."** he says,  **"D o n ' t   y o u   k n o w   h o w   t o   g r e e t   a ~~n e w~~    p a l ?   T u r n   a r o u n d   a n d   s h a k e   m y   h a n d ."**

They do just that, a smile displayed across their features, it twitches irritably at the loud sound of the whoopee cushion and the smile disappears entirely.

"You," they says with distaste, as if they don't meet him at this point in every timeline.

"yup, it's just me," Sans says, trying to keep calm.

Their expression lights up at the new dialogue, but it quickly falls to suspicion.

Sans still holds their hand in his slowly tightening fist, the human child notices and tries to pull away, to no avail.

"Let me go," they say through clenched teeth, no longer tugging furiously, "What do you think you're doing?-"

He doesn't respond, dark expression on his face, instead he pulls the child through a space distortion, reappearing in the True Lab in front of the DT extraction machine.

A rush of vertigo rushes the human child abruptly, but they keep their Toy Knife clutched tightly in their other hand.

 

Chara -

30/40 HP

 

Sans takes a step, only to be met with Alphys in his way. She stands there in front of the machine, teeth chattering and giving out tremors. 

"S-Sans, what ar-are you d-d-doing with the h-hu-human?" Her voice is painfully quiet.

"something you probably don't want to see."

Sans sidesteps her but she blocks the way again.

...

The human is slowly gaining stability, the fist holding their knife slowly tightens.

"alphys." he calls her by her full name, " **G e t   o u t   o f   t h e   w a y .** "

"I c-can't. N-n-not until y-you tell wh-what you're p-p-planning to d-do with th-the human." She trembles as if she's standing in Snowdin.

_"Haha..."_

The two monster freeze.

_"Haha...HAHAHA! HILARIOUS!"_

The human unexpectedly rams him into a wall and he loses half of his HP and falls to the cold floor. He loses his grip on the child's wrist at the same time.

They get behind Alphys and put the toy knife right against her throat.

"Extract my DETERMINATION? You're  _that_ desperate huh?"

Alphys whimpers.

"Maybe it would have worked, maybe it wouldn't have - but now you'll never find out."

"P-p-please don't-don't k-kill m-m-me..." Alphys pleads for MERCY.

 _"No way!"_ The human says, "I've never gotten to kill you before."

Sans looks at Alphys and the child a terrified look on his face.

"kid-"

"Sans... you've managed to piss me off," the child says, "but thanks to you, I can finally dust Alphys." The human looks into her terrified eyes, _"Y_ _ou've always annoyed me."_

With that, they smile insanely and tear her throat in half with their dull toy knife as Alphys screams.

She dusts instantly, leaving a lab coat and glasses behind.

That's the first time he's ever seen Alphys die before, he realizes. 

The room is quiet except for the child's rapidly advancing footsteps. They get to Sans in a matter of seconds, the skeleton doesn't move, stuck. Or maybe he just can't find it in himself to care.

_It's over._

He doesn't expect the child to start talking again, but they do.

"You want Frisk that badly? You want that happy ending?" The child asks, Sans doesn't answer. The human's smile is sinister. "Why don't I just give it to you?"

Sans blinks, astonished.

"That's right." The murderous human leans in close to stare him straight in his flickering eyes, "You have a month to spend frolicking around on the surface."

"And then we'll be right back where we started," they say lightly, twirling their toy knife in their hand.

...

_cause even if we do... we'll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right?_

...

"What, not gonna say anything?" The child mocks his silence, voice echoing through the True Laboratory. "Alright then. Be that way."

Without warning, they plunge their knife into his sternum.

His breath catches in pain, he watches his HP bar tick away a hundredth of an HP each time. 

They leave him be, he'll die soon anyway. And then he'll be a pile of dust, just like Alphys.

Their echoing footsteps pad away.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops, my hand slipped.


	9. Shatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The awfully peaceful thing called dying - it sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to post this today for no reason at all...  
> I'll probably post more again tomorrow because I have chapters that have been written out already and it's starting to honestly feel cluttered up haha.
> 
> More songs to share!
> 
>  
> 
> [Megalo Strike Back - the lullaby.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbvTSPYTWEw&index=281&list=PLjr4imAUPB5XyXM8m_gaz7dJy6F_L7499).
> 
>  
> 
> :)

He takes a painful shortcut out of the dark lab.

Huh, he's never died this slowly before.

0.45/1 HP

He's back in the forest near the Ruin doors. He hadn't meant to do that.

Sans stumbles to his feet, red substance dripping and landing in the snow. His eyesight blurs before it adjusts again. 

"BROTHER!" It's Papyrus.

Sans doesn't move from his position, struggling to even stand. He doesn't want Papyrus to see him like this. 

He'd rather die in a ditch in Waterfall, but that's obviously not an option since he's too weak to teleport now.

"I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU! YOU WEREN'T AT YOUR SENTRY STATION OR GRILLBY'S, I WAS WORRIED!"

He was worried. Of course he was. 

"SANS? YOU DON'T LOOK SO GOOD, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

Papyrus begins to approach Sans, who doesn't have the energy to walk - let alone teleport away. He wills himself to take a stuttering step but his knees are shaking too much. 

"uh, t-tibia honest, n-not really..."

His bones are starting to feel brittle, like chalk. His soul gives out tremors like it could crack at any moment.

He hates dying.

"SANS?" Papyrus' footsteps become more agitated and he's soon frantically running to his brother's side. 

"I... I NEED TO GET TO UNDYNE, SHE'LL KNOW WHAT TO DO!"

Papyrus calls for the river person, holding his hand but he quickly decides to just carry him and they begin to go along the rushing river at a nauseating speed.

The edges of his vision begin to darken and his blinking becomes slower and slower.

By the time Papyrus gets to Undyne's house, his HP has dropped to dead zero. Sans wonders why he's even trying to keep himself together at this point. There's no HOPE for him.

"Woah Papyrus, you don't just barge into people's homes-"

Papyrus is carrying Sans' small shaking frame.

"What happened?"  Undyne asks worriedly, as Papyrus sets Sans down in a chair.

 _A psychopathic human child stabbed me with a toy knife,_ he thinks to himself.

 

CHECK-

Sans

0/1 HP

1 AT

1 DF

_Has something to tell you._

 

But there's just no time left in him. 

Undyne turns pale, there's nothing she can do for him she knows - except watch him die.

"i'd need a h-hehe,  _sturgeon,_ at this point, h-huh?" 

"You're literally dying and THIS is what you say?" Undyne puts her hand over her forehead and draws it down.

Sans doesn't have the energy to answer with another pun of equal caliber.

"What sort of freak accident was it?" Undyne asks, "fell on a ruler sticking out of the ground?" she goes ignored.

...

"SANS... WHO DID THIS TO YOU?" Papyrus is uncharacteristically soft-spoken.

Sans is afraid his brother's innocence has been shattered.

"the h-human."

"Human-?!" Undyne's eye widens.

"they're p-probably far from here by now." Sans says lightly, a red substance dripping out of his mouth, "last i saw them they were in h-hotland."

The silence that comes after is suffocating.

"What were you even doing it Hotland, anyway?" Undyne asks, surprised at how a monster with no HOPE at all is holding out so long.

Then it dawns on her.

"Alphys. Is she okay?" Undyne gets in front of him and grips his shoulders.

_She has to be okay. She has to._

...

Undyne looks at him, an agitated look on her face. 

But he doesn't answer. He doesn't think he could bring himself to say it anyway.

His silence is enough of an answer though, because at that moment, Undyne turns cold. She backs away into a table. 

"N-no..." Undyne says. She sits on her table and covers her face with her hands.

"SANS, ARE YOU... ARE YOU GOING TO DIE TOO?"

He doesn't deny it. It's a miracle he's been able to stay intact this far.

Papyrus takes his hand and holds it in his red gloves.

"You sure take your time dying." Undyne remarks with a sad look on her face as the red substance stains his jacket even more.

"take my ad-advice, dying slowly sucks."

His fingers have begun to disintegrate, Papyrus' gloves are becoming dusty. Neither of them look away from him, though as hard as they may try, he can still see the hint of mortification in their expressions.

His feet begin dusting as well - his slippers fall off for a lack of anything to hold onto.

"I'll avenge you and Alphys," is what Undyne says then, "I'll make them pay. I'll get us to the surface with their soul and... and..."

Undyne holds back her tears and clenches her teeth in anger.

"h-heh, that's a r-real brave thing to do," Sans says, more red liquid pours from his mouth and by now his jaw is pretty much red, "g-good luck getting that psychopath to stay d-dead though."

"What do you mean?" Undyne looks at him like he's spouting nonsense. 

"even the j-judge couldn't keep them from c-coming back over and over..." Sans grimaces when he realizes half of one of his arms are already gone.

"The Royal Judge? You saw the fight?" Undyne asks.

"y-yeah, the judge is p-pretty lame, fell asleep on the job."

There's a big gaping hole on the top of his skull now, but he can't help but notice how Papyrus hasn't said anything at all.

"You-! You can't possibly be the Judge..."

"hey. are you  _trout_ ing me?" 

The pun gets no reaction from Papyrus. 

It occurs to him this is the first time he's ever died before his brother, it's... not a very nice change of pace.

 _He's_ supposed to be the one who suffers watching everyone die time and time again. His brother is supposed to be the one who offers the option to pursue a path of peace to the human, all while believing in them like any truly good person would.

Despite everything, he still cares about him.

...

"i guess i'll see you later."

Those are his final words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops my hand slipped again.  
> ...sorry not sorry.
> 
> P.S: Sorry if anyone saw the story get updated on March 18... I uh, accidentally clicked the Post button. Yeah... bet you were surprised to see an update less than 24 hours after the last chapter.
> 
> But eyy, looks like I have more time to procrastinate now that Spring break is here. One more week of pure unbridled laziness.  
> That also means more time to write haha.


	10. Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "sup, bro?" Sans says as Papyrus approaches.
> 
> "YOU KNOW WHAT 'SUP,' BROTHER!" Papyrus says, "IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T. RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!"
> 
> Sans' smile grows.
> 
> "YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!?"
> 
> "staring at this lamp," Sans says, "it's really cool. do you wanna look?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this rate, I'm gonna run out of music.
> 
> [Tick Tock - SharaX](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ob5JP5Ecw&t=189s).
> 
>  
> 
> :)

* * *

 

**_ RESTART _ **

 

* * *

 

This is the twelfth one. The twelfth reset.

Eleven times, the child wearing pink and blue stripes has commit GENOCIDE. Massacred nearly the entire monster population, laughed gleefully like it was all just a harmless game -  _playthings just for them!_

In a way, it  _is_ all just a game.

Because one moment, he's saying his final words to his brother and the Captain of the Royal Guard -

And the next, he's in the middle of reading "Peek a Boo With Fluffy Bunny" to Papyrus as his bedtime story.

 

He stumbles in the middle of Papyrus' story. Lucky for him, Papyrus doesn't notice.

.

.

.

"night paps."

"GOODNIGHT SANS."

 

But no, he knows he won't be having a goodnight.

His dreams will be plagued by that sick child, their demented grin as they ripped the throat of his old friend in two. The psychotic laughing that echoed through the halls, their dust covered sleeves, their unhinged red eyes, their sickly pale skin,  _her_ shrieks as she fell, her dust scattering on the cold metal floor-

The eyes of his brother as he watched him turn to dust.

.

.

.

 _Will today be different?_ He asks himself. Was the human being truthful when they said they'd grant him and the others a month on the surface?

...

"SANS! I'M GOING OUT TO RE CALIBRATE MY PUZZLES! YOU BETTER NOT BE LATE FOR SENTRY DUTY!"

"don't worry bro, i won't."

"THAT'S GOOD!"

Papyrus walks out the front door, red scarf swishing in the wind. The door promptly slams shut again with his brother's triumphant "NYEHEHE"s. 

Sans sighs, staring at the plate of "spaghetti" on the table left there for him. It's scalding hot.

He sits down and tries to eat it without vomitting - most of it ends up going in the trash.

...

He slips his slippers on and trudges out into the snow. 

He locks the door, knowing Papyrus would berate him if he forgot.

Snow cascades gently down from who knows where. The snow on the ground is still free of dust. He sees the doors to the Ruins have not yet creaked open, as he watches from the shadowy forest.

As always, there is a tough-looking branch on the ground. One he remembers snapping in half numerous times.

Just shy of five minutes later, the double doors of the ruins open. Out walks the human, stick in hand, clothes dust free. 

His blood runs cold with the sight of them, he ignores it.

They step over the tough-looking branch, and he loudly snaps that branch in two just three seconds later. They flinch and look backwards.

When they reach the gate, Sans walks up to them and says his first lines.

 **"H U M A N."** he says,  **"D o n ' t   y o u   k n o w   h o w   t o   g r e e t   a   n e w   p a l ?   T u r n   a r o u n d   a n d   s h a k e   m y   h a n d ."**

"Sans!"

Instead of shaking his hand, they hug him and sob into his jacket. Suffice to say, he's a lot more than surprised. He holds his breath and manages not to flinch and possibly hurt the child's feelings.

"frisk?" Sans gently unlatches them from him, the kid just looks too much like the murderer. 

 _No dust,_ he assures in his head. The child's face is tear streaked, he almost feels guilty. Almost.

"are you good?"

They nod five times. Sans sighs in relief. 

"For a month," the child says.

Right. A month, and then they go right back to the beginning again - but until then, no killing. It'll be different. Very different.

...

The two of them go through the gate Papyrus made.

His brother is in the distance.

"quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp," Sans says jokingly, holding in the tremors coming from his soul, he doesn't expect them to play along - but they do just that with a smile.

"sup, bro?" Sans says as Papyrus approaches.

"YOU KNOW WHAT 'SUP,' BROTHER!" Papyrus says, "IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T. RE CALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!"

Sans' smile grows, despite feeling unsafe with the human so close.

"YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!?"

"staring at this lamp," Sans says, "it's really cool. do you wanna look?"

"NO!! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!!" Papyrus stomps like a child, "WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!?! I WANT TO BE READY!!! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS..."

Papyrus' cape scarf thing flaps in the wind heroically.

"WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT... RECOGNITION... I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!" Papyrus continues about his fantasy, "PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, 'FRIEND?'" Papyrus says, "I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING!"

"hmm... maybe this lamp will help you."

"SANS!!" Papyrus begins to stomp again, "YOU ARE NOT HELPING!! YOU LAZYBONES!! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERYDAY!!!" 

"hey, take it easy. i've got a ton of work done today." He pauses dramatically, _"a skele-ton."_

He winks and the human can barely contain their giggles. His fear gently dissolves.

Ironically, the human reminds him a little of Papyrus.

"SANS!!!"

"come on. you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT!" Papyrus says with an agitated look on his face, "SIGH..." He sighs audibly, "WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME... HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION..." 

"wow, sounds like you're really working yourself... down to the bone." 

The human shakes with suppressed laughter.

"UGH!!! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES. AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE -" Papyrus pauses, "'BACKBONE' INTO IT! NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!" 

Papyrus then walks away.

"HEH!"

"ok, you can come out now."

The human does just that and walks up to him, smiling.

"you outta get going. he might come back. and if he does... you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes."

The child listens to him and begins to leave, but just before they leave his sight, he says something.

"actually, hey... hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor? i was thinking... my brother's been kind of down lately... he's never seen a human before, and seeing you might just make his day," he says, "don't worry, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be. thanks a million, i'll be up ahead."

That's the child's cue to get going.

.

.

.

"SO AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE -!"

Papyrus spots the human child and proceeds to flip out. He turns away from the child.

"SANS!! OH MY GOD!! IS THAT... A HUMAN!?!?!??!?!"

He then turns around to face the stripe shirted child and a rock.

"uhhh... actually, i think that's a rock."

"OH."

...

"hey, what's that in front of the rock?" he says quickly.

"OH MY GOD!! (IS...IS THAT A HUMAN)"

"(yes)"

"OH MY GOD!!! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT!! UNDYNE WILL... I'M GONNA... I'LL BE SO... POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!!" Papyrus echoes, "...AHEM."

Papyrus attempts to compose himself.

"HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THE AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!!! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN... THEN!!!" He stops and says, "I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT." 

"IN ANY CASE!!" He says, undeterred, "CONTINUE... ONLY IF YOU DARE!!!"

Papyrus runs out of sight with his signature laughs trailing behind.

"well, that went well. don't sweat it, kid," one of Sans' eyes closes, "I'll keep an eye socket out for ya." He then follows his brother away from the human.

.

.

.

Doggo is alive and well (as well as dog that can only spot moving things can be) and so is that snowman. Sans feels as though he's dreaming.

But of course not. That would just be cruel.

.

.

.

The human child walks along the wobbly wooden planked bridge to where he and his brother stand a couple meters away.

"HUMAN!!" Papyrus says, "THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" He announces as it appears.

"WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE!!! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE!" He states, "EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN!!!"

"ARE YOU READY!?"

"BECAUSE!"

"I!"

"AM!"

"ABOUT!"

"TO DO IT!"

Nothing happens of course. Sans knows his brother is just too softhearted to something like that to another living being.

"well? what's the holdup?" He asks.

"HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP!?" He denies it. "I'M...  I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!"

The child holds their unwavering gaze as Papyrus seems to grow nervous.

"that, uh, doesn't look very activated," Sans says as he looks at it.

"WELL!!! THIS CHALLENGE!!! IT SEEMS... MAYBE... TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH."

 _that's new_ , is what he thinks.

"YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE!!! I'M A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS!!! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED! BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL!" Papyrus does that weird little thing only he can do, his eyes seemingly bulging, but it soon dissolves. "AWAY IT GOES!"

At that, the Gauntlet of Deadly Terror disappears from sight.

He turns away and huffs out a "PHEW!"

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!!"

"NYEH!"

"HEH!"

"..."

"HEH?"

Papyrus walks away, face still one of confusion.

.

.

.

Sans isn't sure what he thinks of the human child's murderous "friend." He swears this child's downfall will be because of the kindness of their soul.

They really  _do_ remind him of Papyrus.


	11. Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the end, Papyrus tells the human reluctantly that he doesn't really reciprocate their feelings.
> 
> Of course he knew this would happen, but he's glad anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Woah, the chapters are in double digits now!)
> 
> Beautiful piece of music:
> 
> [Bonetrousle - tieff's remix!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pcqGbDzyX8)  
> .
> 
>  
> 
> :)

The human child gets through the town of Snowdin, they listen to all the monsters that have something to say.

It's nice to see the town so peaceful. 

...

There's a blizzard, just like the other timelines. It's difficult to see through, the wind is rushing towards him and the snow is flying so quickly he can hardly see a thing.

It's time to see if this kid is the real deal.

He'd warned them of his brother's famed "Blue Attack" but it hadn't seemed like they'd really needed the information. They already knew what he'd say from the beginning. He told them to think about blue stop signs anyway.

"HUMAN. ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE... THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL."

Sans listens intently as Papyrus' red scarf blows around in the wind.

"THESE FEELINGS... THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!!!" 

Sans chuckles, his brother is so cool.

"I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT. I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE. I PITY YOU... LONELY HUMAN... WORRY NOT! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER!!! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR..."

Papyrus' voice trails off, his silhouette seems to slump.

"NO... NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND!!!" 

So that's what he had stopped himself from saying.

He has mixed feelings about his brother wanting to be friends with the human. But he reminds himself this human isn't the same one that has murdered him countless times out of hate.

This human is different.

"YOU ARE A HUMAN! I MUST CAPTURE YOU!!! THEN, I CAN FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM!"

He lists what he wants to be: powerful, popular, prestigious.

"THAT'S PAPYRUS!" He says, "THE NEWEST MEMBER... OF THE ROYAL GUARD!"

The fight is initiated between the two of them and he finds himself growing uneasy.

"WHAT!? FL-FLIRTING!? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS!" 

...

Scratch that. Sans can't believe the kid just flirted with his brother.

"W-WELL! I-I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!"

The human tells Papyrus they have zero redeeming qualities.

Papyrus is stunned by their humility. 

The "fight" continues on that way and he finds he really does believe in the kid. A bone-afide pacifist.

Papyrus then uses his fabled blue attack and the human's soul turns blue.

He hadn't known his brother could do that. Sans wonders how he could have missed it, Papyrus has really been training.

The human has no trouble dodging whatsoever.

The "fight" ends and neither of the two are hurt at all. Papyrus invites them to visit anytime.

Should he ask if the human is even old enough to date yet...?

.

.

.

Sans takes a shortcut back to his and Papyrus' home. He reappears in his cozy dark room just beside his self sustaining trash tornado. It whooshes faintly. He makes his way through the room to his bed and just falls on it.

He's surprisingly tired, but now's not the time to fall asleep on the job. He can do that later. 

"ENJOY AND TAKE YOUR TIME!!!" He hears Papyrus say through the door.

He can hear the soft padding around of the human child downstairs.

"OOH IT'S MY FAVORITE GAME SHOW!!" A pause, he can hear the peppy tune of the Mettaton's show, "WHAT!!! IT'S USUALLY BETTER THAN THIS! THIS IS JUST A BAD EPISODE!!! DON'T JUDGE ME!!!" 

"THIS IS MY BROTHER'S PET ROCK. HE ALWAYS FORGETS TO FEED IT. AS USUAL, I HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY."

Sans chuckles.

The human pads over to a different part of the house.

"AH-HA! INTERESTED IN MY FOOD MUSEUM? PLEASE. PERUSE MY CULINARY ART SHOW."

The fridge door opens quietly, he remembers suddenly just how many containers of spaghetti there are in there. 

And also the empty bag of chips he left.

The house tour continues, with Papyrus having something to say about every single item they owned. He even gets the chance to plague his brother's life with more incidental music.

The human shares the same sense of humor as him, as they laugh into their sleeve when he takes out the trombone.

...

He decides not to listen to the human's date with his brother, they can have their privacy. 

Though he hears something about the human being too gentle to wreck Papyrus' delicately made gift wrapping paper anyway. The walls aren't very soundproof. 

.

.

.

In the end, Papyrus tells the human reluctantly that he doesn't really reciprocate their feelings.

Of course he knew this would happen, but he's glad anyway.

.

.

.

"what?"

He's sitting in his sentry station/hot dog stand in Waterfall. 

"haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before?"

"fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally required breaks." 

"i'm going to grillby's. wanna come?"

From the look on their face, he can tell they're contemplating saying that they're busy - but it seems his charms are too difficult to resist.

"Yeah!" They say, smile on their face.

"well, if you insist...i'll pry myself away from my work..." he says jokingly. He gets out from behind the stand and says, "over here. I know a shortcut."

...

"fast shortcut, huh?" He addresses the human.

He greets all the regulars nonchalantly, as though the seventh and final human soul isn't right behind him.

He tells the human to get comfortable and they sit on the only chair beside him. It, of course, has a whoopee cushion on it. 

"whoops, watch where you sit down. sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the seats," the human smiles out of embarrassment. 

"anyway, let's order. waddya want?"

They say they want a burger.

"hey, that sounds pretty good. grillby, we'll have a double order of burg."

Grillby leaves to go to the kitchen and retrieve their order.

"so, what do you think of my brother?"

They exclaim how cool he is.

"of course he's cool. you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit everyday. he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to."

He smiles fondly.

"oh well. at least he washes it... by that i mean he wears it in the shower."

The human smiles as well and he can tell that they're incredibly fond of him as well. 

That's when Grillby comes back with their order.

"here comes the grub. want some ketchup?"

They tell him "No," and from the expression on their face they already know that the lid on the ketchup bottle isn't screwed on very tight.

"more for me," is all he says before he chugs the whole thing.

The human holds a hint of distaste.

"anyway, cool or not, you have to agree papyrus tries real hard. like how he keeps trying to be part of the royal guard," Sans pauses, "one day, he went to the house of the head of the royal guard... and begged her to let him be in it. of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight. but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. it's uh, still a work in progress."

They pause for a moment and watch Grillby cleaning a drinking glass.

"oh yeah. i wanted to ask you something."

...

"have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

"Yes," they say.

"so you know all about it," he can sense that the human knows he's talking about Flowey, but he says something else anyway, "the echo flower. they're all over the marsh. say something to them and they'll repeat it over and over... what about it? well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. sometimes, when no one else is around...

a flower appears and whispers things to him. flattery... advice... encouragement... predictions. weird, huh? someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him. keep an eye out, ok? thanks."

...

"welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let ya pull me away from work that long."

Even though his job  _is_ to watch for humans. He guesses chatting with the human sort of counts.

"oh, by the way... i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill?"

"it's just 10000 G."

They tell him determinedly that yes, they can foot the bill.

"just kidding. grillby, put it on my tab."

He walks to the front of the bar and then turns around again to look at the child.

"by the way... i was going to say something, but i forgot." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I need to speed up the human's trek through the Underground. Otherwise, this'll take forever and we'll never get to the surface!  
> I'll be including less scenes because I don't want to bore anyone out, but all the scenes including Sans will still be written out since this story is pretty SANStric.


	12. Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The statue is old and cracked. Water drips on it from the rocky ceiling.
> 
> They take a faded red umbrella and place it atop the statue.
> 
> Inside the statue, plays a music box.
> 
> It's serene tune fills them with DETERMINATION.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How didn't I find this one sooner?
> 
> [Waterfall - the piano version, this deserves way more views haha](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0wjgvyeYDI).
> 
> And another one:
> 
> [Undyne's theme - Spear of justice!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXt1rbs-ttM).
> 
>  
> 
> :)

Sans knows at about this time, Papyrus gives his daily report to Undyne. 

He sits laid back on his chair behind his hot dog stand.

Despite just having had a break, he's still tired. He feels as though he hasn't slept in a long, long time. He guesses that's what repeating the same day over and over does to you. 

Hanging around the human...

It makes him feel like there's still hope left for the Underground. Shouldn't that feeling energize him or something? Motivate him? It doesn't. Not really. 

Being honest to himself, the child scares him sometimes.

He looks at that human, and he finds himself imagining a knife clutched in their hand, eyes flashing red. His head likes to mess with him.

But when he looks at that innocent expression, the knife in their hand disappears entirely. 

He doesn't understand how it's possible.

.

.

.

"i'm thinking about getting into the telescope business. it's normally 50000 G to use this premium telescope... but... since i know you," no, he really doesn't know the child at all, they're an enigma to him, "you can use it for free."

"howzaboutit?"

The human plays along and decides to use it.

He, of course, has painted the telescope partially red, the paint isn't dry.

"huh? you aren't satisfied?"

"don't worry. i'll give you a full refund."

The human's face is partially red like his telescope.

.

.

.

The statue is old and cracked. Water drips on it from the rocky ceiling.

They take a faded red umbrella and place it atop the statue.

Inside the statue, plays a music box.

It's serene tune fills them with DETERMINATION.

.

.

.

Sans takes a shortcut to his sentry station in Hotland.

The lava down below wavers and bubbles, steam rising steadily. There's not one being around, it's very quite deserted.

It's...

Quiet.

...

He props his foot up on the stand and lays back. The air quivers with the heat. 

Sans slowly begins to drift and fall asleep. His eyelids close and he's fast asleep.

...

_"dad, could you tell me about the war?"_

_"Sans, I am busy."_

_He looks at his father, who sits in the living room couch reading a report._

_At his gaze, his father looks up._

_"But I suppose I can spare some time."_

_Sans smiles and gives his full attention to him._

_"First, however, why do you want to know all of a sudden?"_

_"...curiosity."_

_"That's sound reasoning," his father says, smiling, "well, the motivation behind the human's attacking was fear."_

_The fireplace crackles softly._

_"why were they afraid?" He asks, large eyes staring, "aren't humans supposed be really strong?"_

_"Indeed, humans are very powerful. But that is their weakness. Their souls are so powerful that they persist even after death. Do you know what that can mean?"_

_Sans shakes his head._

_"Monsters had the ability to absorb human souls. This was the source of their fear._ _Their fear was not without reason, but it was quite irrational in my opinion."_

_"what made them so powerful though?"_

_"That is what I would like to know as well, Sans," his father then says, "Now, go sleep. You have studies tomorrow._

...

The soft pitter-pattering of running feet whizzes past him, trailed by loud metallic clanks.

The human child and the Captain of the Royal Guard.

Something is towering over him, he can feel the fish shaped shadow being cast on him.

Sans opens one of his eyes to see her angry expression.

He closes his eyelid and pretends to not have seen her.

He hears a frustrated "NGAH!" and the Captain runs off after the human.

"better leave before she comes back for me," he says to himself, stretching out his limbs and taking a shortcut out of Hotland.

Sans reappears a foot above his and Papyrus' lumpy but otherwise nice couch. He drops down and finds that Papyrus isn't home.

Papyrus' cooking lesson should be happening right about now.

Knowing the human and how they're progressing, it's likely they've spared her already.

...But it can't hurt to check.

Sans, like the nosy bastard he can be, appears hidden in the tall grass by Undyne's house.

Nope. She's not dead yet. 

The human and Papyrus stand outside the house and like the cool skeleton his brother is, he gives the human a little something that they can gift to Undyne. It's a bone with a red ribbon tied around the middle.

Undyne has many redeeming qualities, he finds. Cooking is not one of them.

Looks like she'll be crashing at his and Papyrus' house for the time being. 

.

.

.

"knock knock."

Sans isn't sure what he expects, he guesses he just needs more confirmation the pun loving lady behind the door isn't dead.

It takes her a while to respond.

"Sans, are you there?"

"yeah," a wave of relief reaches him.

"How...how is my child doing?"

"they've been making real _bone_ -afide friends," he says.

"Really?"

"you know i can't lie. everyone sees right through me."

"Your heart wasn't behind that joke!" She laughs.

"you know i haven't got the guts."

She's alive. That's all that matters. 

.

.

.

Sans appears out of nowhere in the warm interior of his house.

Undyne is here, he'd forgotten.

"HOLY-!"

It seems he chose the wrong time and place to pop into existence.

Undyne is holding a plate of salad in front of Papyrus in the living room and he just so happened to teleport in between them.

Thank goodness he's short. Otherwise the salad would have landed on him - it got planted on Papyrus' face instead.

...

He's not sorry at all.

"...I KNOW YOU WANTED ME TO TRY THE SALAD BUT I DOUBT THIS IS THE PROPER WAY TO EAT IT."

"When the fuck did _you_ get there??" Undyne asks, baffled.

"UNDYNE, SWEARING IS NOT SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR THE CHILDREN WHO ADMIRE YOU!" Papyrus says indignantly.

"abra- _cod_ -abra, magic. and yeah undyne, your  _fins_ really do admire you."

"SANS, IF YOU KEEP THIS UP, I WILL BE FORCED TOO CONFISCATE YOUR -"

"don't you mean  _confishcate?_ "

"I didn't hear that." Undyne says, closing her eyes and covering her ears.

"i thought you had excellent  _herring_."

"NGAH!"

"NYEH!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, not too many major events.
> 
> The next chapter likely will not be too eventful either - and uh, tibia (that's so over-used, so I'm going to use it even more) honest, the fourteenth chapter likely isn't going tibia very exciting one.  
> But! The end is nigh.  
> That means I have to admit I'm pretty happy with how the fifteenth chapter turned out.
> 
> :D


	13. Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "you're holding too much... guess i'll just put it on your head."
> 
> He reaches out and puts it right on top of the child's head, they smile with delight.
> 
> And then they ask for a fourth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Farewell, sweet Spring break and being lazy.
> 
>  
> 
> [Metal Crusher - Mettaton's theme (on a launchpad!)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xfwzzXPH2k)  
>    
>  
> 
> .
> 
>  
> 
> [Spider Dance (this is my absolute favorite version! That's saying a lot, since Spider dance is my personal favorite theme in Undertale)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=655wMcQoubc)
> 
>  
> 
> .
> 
>  
> 
> [The Original Spider Dance theme - just because](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ3XjVVNagU&t=0s)

Alphys is updating her status, again. 

It's funny, how just one timeline ago, she had pleaded for mercy from a human. Yet they had killed her in cold blood, despite her being the one who had saved them. No. It's not funny.

Alphys posts a picture with the caption: "CUte PIC OF ME RIGHT NOW ^. ^"

It's a photo of a garbage can with several pink, glittery filters over it.

.

.

.

Papyrus is watching the TV with an intent expression - even though the screen is dark. Undyne asks him what's so interesting about the black screen. He tells her it's Mettaton's cooking show.

The lights turn on then, and the screen is no longer dark.

It seems as though the human is standing in a kitchen. They also happen to be holding a phone to their ear and listening intently.

He's almost sure that Alphys is the one who's talking to the human.

"OHHHH YES!!!"

That's the starting line. Papyrus' "eyes" are glued to the television set - and surprisingly, so is Undyne's.

"WELCOME BEAUTIES, TO THE UNDERGROUND'S PREMIER COOKING SHOW!!!" The boxy robot says, in the most impossibly fake voice imaginable.

In a fancy font at the bottom of the screen are the words: "Cooking with a Killer Robot"

Sans can't help but wonder what Papyrus sees in this bulky hunk of metal.

"PRE-HEAT YOUR OVENS, BECAUSE TODAY WE'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL RECIPE FOR YOU TODAY! WE'RE GOING TO BE MAKING... A CAKE! MY LOVELY ASSISTANT HERE WILL GATHER THE INGREDIENTS. EVERYONE GIVE THEM A HAND!!!"

At that, Sans takes the opportunity to detach his skeletal hand and chuck it at the TV.

The hand comes flying back at him, courtesy of Papyrus.

"WE'LL NEED SUGAR, MILK AND EGGS. GO FOR IT, SWEETHEART!"

The child runs to the opposite counter and retrieves the ingredients as instructed.

"GREAT JOB! JUST PUT THEM IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS COUNTER!!!" They plop all of it on the counter. "PERFECT!! GREAT JOB BEAUTIFUL! WE'VE GOT ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS WE NEED TO BAKE THE CAKE!"

"EGGS... SUGAR... MILK... OH MY!"

Sans can understand why Undyne gets a bad vibe from Mettaton.

"WHAT A MAGNIFICENT MOMENT! HOW COULD I FORGET!!! WE'RE MISSING THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!"

Mettaton slowly reveals a running chainsaw. It's rumbling motor runs loudly and it fills the living room.

"A HUMAN SOUL!!!"

Mettaton's 'face' flashes a deadly red - until it stops. He takes out his phone to answer a call.

"HELLO...? I'M KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HERE."

...

"...A SUBSTITUTION? YOU MEAN, USE A DIFFERENT, NON-HUMAN INGREDIENT? ...WHY?"

...

"VEGAN?"

...

"THAT'S A BRILLIANT IDEA, ALPHYS! ACTUALLY, I HAPPEN TO HAVE AN OPTION RIGHT HERE!!!"

 _good going, alph,_ Sans thinks.

.

.

.

Sans is sitting in his fourth sentry station, his hot dog stand, awaiting the human.

"hey buddy, what's up? wanna buy a hot dog? it's only 30 G."

They tell him yes, they do want a hot dog.

The child hands him 30 G.

"thanks, kid. here's your 'dog."

"yeah. 'dog. apostrophe-dog. it's short for hot-dog."

They tell him they want another.

"another h 'dog? here you go..." he pauses and looks, "whoops. i'm actually out of hot dogs. here, you can have a hot cat instead."

The child asks for a third.

"you're holding too much... guess i'll just put it on your head."

He reaches out and puts it right on top of the child's head, they smile with delight.

And then they ask for a fourth.

"it's on the house. well, no. it's on you."

He puts another one atop the their head. There are now two wobbling 'cats on their head, since he's out of dogs.

They ask for a fifth.

And a sixth.

And then a seventh. 

Eighth.

Ninth.

Tenth.

Eleventh.

Twelfth.

Thirteenth.

Fourteenth.

Fifteenth.

Sixteenth.

Seventeenth.

Eighteenth.

Nineteenth.

Twentieth.

Twenty-first.

Twenty-second.

Twenty-third.

Twenty-fourth.

Twenty-fifth.

Twenty-sixth.

Twenty-seventh.

Twenty-eight.

Twenty-ninth.

Thirtieth.

Thirty-first.

...

"here. have fun."

The child stands determinedly still. The hot cats are stacked on the child's head all the way to twenty nine. He's amazed by how still the child is.

And then they begin to walk.

The tower tilts like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and it wobbles unsteadily. The kid makes it four steps before the whole thing topples to the ground.

.

.

.

Papyrus says Mettaton is on TV again - and so is the human. 

Sans is sitting on the couch, along with Papyrus and Undyne. The camera is focused on the human. The background is a stony blue and there's the silhouette of a castle in the distance.

"OH? THAT HUMAN..."

The camera pans upwards to where Metatton is peeking around a corner.

"COULD IT BE...?" The robot says in the most dramatic fake voice imaginable. He comes into full view, wearing an elegant blue dress that's wider than it is long.

"...MY ONE TRUE LOVE?" His hands are clasped together.

Soft music begins to play as Metatton descends down the stone stairway.

"Oh my love..." The beginnings of a song, 

"Please run away..."

"Monster king"

"Forbids your stay."

Metatton dramatically puts a gloved hand to where his forehead would be if he were humanoid.

"Humans must"

His hands are clasped together again.

"Live far apart."

"Even if..."

"It breaks my heart."

Pink rosy petals fly into the scene.

Sans doesn't know what to make of this.

"They'll put you"

"In the dungeon..."

"It'll suck."

At that, Undyne snorts.

"And then you'll die a lot."

Sans quirks an eyebrow.

"Really sad..."

The chorus begins.

"You're gonna die."

"Cry cry cry..."

"So sad it's happening."

A lone shooting star whizzes by in the background and the music ends.

Sans once again wonders how Metatton is so famous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was spelling "hot dog" and I managed to accidentally switch around "d" and "g."
> 
> hot god.  
> I'm hilarious.


	14. Judgement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end is at hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally started and finished this in one day.  
> And then I forgot to post.
> 
>  
> 
> [Another Medium :D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLsuam9o9BA)
> 
>  
> 
>    
> .
> 
>  
> 
> [It's Raining Somewhere Else - Vocals by Melt (ThiS is oNe iS sO gOoD)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhm7t0emm0)
> 
>  
> 
> .
> 
>  
> 
> [Death By Glamour - Mettaton EX's theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMDFhjpMTEY&t=4s)
> 
>    
> .
> 
>  
> 
> :)

He invites the human to have dinner with him.

The two of them sit across from each other, the music setting a somber mood. 

"well, here we are."

He pauses and thinks about what he's about to say.

"so. your journey's almost over, huh? you must really wanna go home." He looks away, "hey. I know the feeling, buddo. though... maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you... is what you have to do... really worth it?"

They know who he's really talking to. He's right in assuming  _they_ can hear him right now.

"hey. let me tell you a story. so i'm a sentry in snowdin forest, right? i sit out there and watch for humans. it's kind of boring. fortunately, deep in the forest... there's this HUGE locked door. and it's perfect for practicing knock knock jokes. so one day, i'm knocking 'em out, like usual. i knock on the door and say,

'knock knock.' and suddenly from the other side... i hear a woman's voice.

'Who is there?'

so, naturally, i respond: 'dishes.' 

'Dishes who?'

'dishes a very bad joke.'

then she just positively howls with laughter. like it's the best joke she's heard in a hundred years. so i keep 'em coming, and she keeps laughing. she's the best audience i've ever had. then, after a dozen of them, SHE knocks and says...

'Knock knock!'

i say 'who's there?'

'Old lady!'

'old lady who?'

'Oh! I did not know you could yodel!'

wow.

needless to say, this woman was extremely good. we kept telling each other jokes for hours. eventually, i had to leave. papyrus gets kind of cranky without his bedtime story."

The human smiles.

"but she told me to come by again, and so i did. then i did again. and again. it's a thing now. telling bad jokes through the door. it rules...one day, though, i noticed she wasn't laughing very much. i asked her what was up. then she told me something strange.

'If a human ever comes through this door... could you please, please promise me something? watch over them, and protect them, will you not?'

now, i hate making promises. and this woman, i don't even know her name."

_more like i shouldn't know her name - but i do._

"but... someone who sincerely likes bad jokes... has an integrity you can't say 'no' to. do you get what i'm saying? that promise made to her... you know what would have happened if she hadn't said anything? ...buddy. 

. . . Y o u ' d   b e   d e a d   w h e r e   y o u   s t a n d .

hey, lighten up, bucko! i'm just joking with you. besides... haven't i done a great job protecting you? i mean, look at yourself. you haven't died a single time. that's right, isn't it? well, chalk it up to my great skills. heh.

well, that's all. take care of yourself, kid. 'cause someone really cares about you."

Sans then turns around and walks away. He doesn't look back at the child.

.

.

.

The end is at hand.

.

.

.

Sans chooses not to watch the human battle with Mettaton, but the amazed screams of Papyrus and Undyne are enough to know exactly what's happening. The human wins, not one scratch or mar on their skin.

He wonders how many times the human must have RELOADED or RESET back before the genocide timelines to get that good at dodging monster attacks.

...

It doesn't matter.

.

.

.

The hall is filled with a golden light, shimmering and casting shadows across his face. Reminiscent of the battle with the battle with  _them_.

Sans waits patiently.

He wonders what will be next after this. 

The surface seems so close yet so far. Will the human keep to their statement? Leave monster kind alone for an entire month? It's difficult to really know. Difficult to believe. They don't strike him as one to go back on their words, but their very nature makes him question everything they say.

It also strikes him as strange that he doesn't remember the barrier ever breaking in the first pacifist timeline.

What happened?

The human child stands at the end of the hall, heart locket swinging from their neck. Light glints off of it's surface.

"So you finally made it." He begins, "The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the king. Together... You will determine the future of this world. That's then." He says.

"Now. You will be judged."

"You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you've earned."

"What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for  **execution points.** A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others. When you kill someone, your EXP increases. When you have enough EXP, you LOVE increases."

"LOVE, to, is an acronym. It stands for  **Level of Violence.** A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt."

"The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others..."

He shifts.

"...but you. you never gained any LOVE. 'course that doesn't mean you're completely innocent or naive. just that you kept a certain tenderness in your heart. no matter the struggles or hardships that you faced... you strived to do the right thing. you refused to hurt anyone. even when you ran away, you did it with a smile."

"you never gained LOVE, but you gained love. does that make sense? maybe not."

He closes his eyes and sighs.

"...now. you're about to face the greatest challenge. your actions here... will determine the fate or the entire world. if you refuse to fight... asgore will take your soul and destroy humanity. but if you kill asgore and go home... monsters will remain trapped underground. what will you do?"

He pauses.

"...well, if i were you, i would have thrown in the towel by now. but you didn't get this far by giving up, did you? that's right. you have something called 'determination.' so as long as you hold on... so as long as you do what's in your heart... i believe you can do the right thing. alright. we're all counting on you, kid. good luck."

...

He watches from the shadows as the human progresses with each step, getting closer to Asgore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is mostly just scenes from the game and Sans' dialogue, next chapter will likely have more action!


	15. Ready?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "If..."
> 
> In that one word, he can hear all the despair the king keeps.
> 
> "If by chance you have any unfinished business... Please do what you must."
> 
> In the human's stance, there is the sureness of knowing this is not the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I actually wrote this chapter in one day (to be exact, I wrote this chapter on the same day as I wrote chapter 14 oops)
> 
> [Bergentrückung - Asgore's theme (the pieano version... my puns are great)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrLi-YLGVnk&index=304&list=PLjr4imAUPB5XyXM8m_gaz7dJy6F_L7499&t=0s).
> 
> .
> 
> [Your Best Nightmare/Finale - Photoshop Flowey's theme REMIX](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvLCax9c2Hg).
> 
> .
> 
> :)

He trails behind the human child. They now stand before the entrance to the throne room.

"Dum dee dum..." The king's ramblings echo.

The human child stands just behind the king of monsters.

"Oh? Is someone there? Just a moment! I have almost finished watering these flowers."

His flowing purple robe drags across the ground.

"...Here we are!"

The flowers are bright and golden, no doubt, the king had taken great care of each and every one of them.

"Howdy! How can I..." Asgore trails as he gets a good glimpse at them.

He abruptly steps backward, shocked.

"Oh." Is all he says, speechless.

...

"I so badly want to say 'would you like a cup of tea?' But... You know how it is," he says, tone regretful.

The boss monster walks to the left slowly.

"Nice day today, huh?" Birds are singing, flowers are blooming..."

_took those words straight outta my mouth._

"Perfect weather for a game of catch."

His expression becomes distraught with the idea of what will happen next.

"You know what we must do. When you are ready, come into the next room."

The child's steps are steady, he can swear he feels the determination radiating off of them.

One foot before the other, the child confidently follows the king of all monsters. 

"How tense..." Asgore says in the next room, "Just think of it like... A visit to the dentist."

Their footsteps echo across the hall to another entrance to a different place.

"Are you ready? If you are not, I understand. I am not ready either."

Sans can see that Asgore doesn't mean he isn't ready to cross the barrier, what he isn't ready for, is killing the human. Asgore enters into the next chamber first.

The human equips The Worn Dagger.

Sans feels his soul begin to pound.

He doesn't enter the room and instead chooses to watch from afar.

"This is the barrier," the saddened king says.

His eyes widen at the sight of the eerily echoing barrier that has been enclosing them all in the Underground.

"This is what keeps us all trapped underground."

...

"If..."

In that one word, he can hear all the despair the king keeps.

"If by chance you have any unfinished business... Please do what you must."

In the human's stance, there is the sureness of knowing  _this is not the end._

...

"...I see..."

"This is it, then."

"Ready?" The kings asks yet again.

Six colored human souls appear in glass chambers.

The fight then initiates. 

"Human..." He says, "It was nice to meet you."

...

"Goodbye."

There's a sort of finality in those words that makes his soul clench in on itself.

A spear becomes known to him and it raises...

And destroys the option of MERCY.

They cannot spare him.

So the human child FIGHTS.

.

.

.

Their last hit nearly dusts him. 

The softhearted king falls to his knees.

"Ah..."

"So that is how it is."

...

"I remember the day after my son died." The king says quietly, "The entire Underground was devoid of hope. The future had once again been taken from us by the humans."

The king continues to look down.

"In a fit of anger, I declared war. I said that I would destroy any human that came here. I would use their souls to become godlike... and free us from this terrible prison. Then I would destroy humanity... And let monsters rule the surface, in peace. Soon, the people's hope returned."

"My wife, however, became disgusted by my actions. She left this place, never to be seen again. Truthfully... I do not want power. I do not want to hurt anyone. I just wanted everyone to have hope. But... I cannot take this any longer."

Sans watches the whole ordeal.

"I just want to see my wife. I just want to see my child. Please... young one... This war has gone on long enough. You have the power... Take my soul, and leave this cursed place." The king says.

He's giving up his life.

The child chooses the formerly destroyed option of MERCY.

...

"After everything I have done to hurt you..." the king's eyes are pained, "You would rather stay down here and suffer...Than live happily on the surface?"

The king...

Smiles.

"Human..." The look on his face is full of hope that Sans somehow knows won't last long, "I promise you... For as long as you remain here... My wife and I will take care of you as best we can... We can sit in the living room, telling stories... Eating butterscotch pie... We could be like...Like a family."

His soul feels heavy in his chest at the king's hopeful words.

Asgore's life ends too quickly.

He dissolves into dust, leaving behind a shivering soul.

It breaks apart and a golden flower appears in the place the king once stood.

"You IDIOT." It says scathingly, a sinister smile upon it's face. "You haven't learned a thing."

Flowey. 

"In this world..."

Its face becomes increasingly mutilated, as if it were melting and it forms a revolting grin.

**"It's KILL or BE killed."**

The six human souls begin to whirl around it as it laughs morbidly, its face stretches into a grotesque jaw. 

It laughs and laughs and laughs-

...

**Long ago, two races ruled over Earth:**

**HUMANS and MONSTERS.**

~~**One day, they all disappeared without a trace.** ~~

...

"Howdy! It's me, FLOWEY. FLOWEY the FLOWER! I owe you a huge thanks. You really did a number on that old fool. Without you, I NEVER could have gotten past him."

Its face shapes into Asgore's.

"But now, with your help..."

Its face melts into that revolting smile.

" **He's DEAD.** And I'VE got the human SOULS!"

Sans can barely stand to watch.

"Boy! I've been empty for so long... It feels great to have a soul inside me again. Mmm, I can feel them wriggling. Aww, you're feeling left out, aren't you?"

Cold sweat drips down his face as he backs further into the wall behind him.

"Well, that's just perfect. Afterall, I only have six souls. I still need one more...  Before I become GOD. And then, with my newfound powers..."

Its face shapes into a monster's face, someone vaguely familiar - 

Toriel. It's Toriel's face.

"Monsters." Its face reshapes to something reminiscent of the human child's face, "Humans."

Its face twirls insanely, "EVERYONE."

"I'll show them all the REAL meaning of this world." Its face goes dark and its smile becomes illuminated.

The face disappears into TV static for a moment before it says, 

"Oh, and forget about escaping to your old SAVE FILE. It's gone FOREVER. But don't worry. Your old friend FLOWEY... has worked out a replacement for you!"

It winks and sticks it's tongue out before it reveals two rows of sharp teeth, eyes barely pinpricks in the darkness.

"I'll SAVE over your own death. So you can watch me tear you to bloody pieces..." Its eyes are enlarged, "Over, and over, and over..."

The child bravely steps forth.

"...what? Do you really think you can stop ME?"

"hee hee hee, you really ARE an idiot." 

...

The fight initiates and seven souls flicker into view.

Red.

Cyan.

Orange.

Dark blue.

Purple.

Green.

Yellow.

Its screeching laughs seem to shake the room.

...

In just a couple seconds, a quarter of the human's health is gone.

Blood drips to the floor.

.

.

.

The fight hardly seems fair. 

But still, the human hangs on to their DETERMINATION.

Until their calls for help are answered and the six human souls revolt against the monster.

 

Sans feels as though he could hug the human, but he doesn't.

The child approaches the defeated looking flower, head bent forward.

Despite it all, they choose to give MERCY to the flower.

Sans should have seen this coming.

"What are you doing?" It asks the young human quietly, its face showing slowly, "Do you really think I've learned anything from this? No."

They elect MERCY yet again.

"Sparing me won't change anything. Killing me is the only way to end this."

Sans would have killed the flower by now out of spite.

But the human does not. 

"If you let me live..." It shows its battered face to the human, "I'll come back."

They won't FIGHT though.

"I'll kill you." Says the flower.

They won't do anything other than SPARE the flower.

"I'll kill everyone." Threatens the flower.

Sans holds his breath. 

The human does not waver.

"I'll kill everyone you love." It tries yet again.

But the human child has already made their decision.

"..."

They choose MERCY.

"...?"

Like a mantra, they SPARE him.

"...why?"

Again.

"...why are you being..." The flower holds a hint of guilt on its face. "...so nice to me?"

Sans feels...puzzled. 

"I can't understand." It states.

...

MERCY.

"I can't understand!" It shouts, seeming almost enraged with frustration.

MERCY.

"I just can't understand..." The flower says softly.

Its face shows a stunning amount of emotion, before it FLEES, leaving the human child standing alone in the dark cold room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed not to completely ruin Flowey's complicated character. Whew.


	16. Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "A tiny... flower?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH HA! A long chapter. We're almost done with the Pacifist timeline!
> 
> [Heartache - Vocals by Melt, I really recommend this haha](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w64O7eJmJBo)
> 
> .
> 
> :)

The human RELOADS their SAVE FILE.

A bright light envelopes them and everything around - and the human is back to the moment before their fight with Asgore.

Sans is back where he was before.

Why did they go back? He doesn't quite understand.

They begin to backtrack.

Back. Back. Back they go.

They take an elevator back down and to the Core area. 

Maybe they aren't satisfied with something?

Suddenly a ringing sound comes from the human's spot. They don't look surprised, as if they expected this to happen.

It's Undyne. 

Her shouting isn't quite loud enough to be heard from his spot, but whatever it is that she said to the human, they expected it.

The child goes with the River person all the way back to Snowdin.

The newly fallen snow envelopes their feet as soon as they step out of the boat. They walk and walk, and they're back at his own house. Papyrus and Undyne stand outside.

"Um, so, I have a favor to ask you. Uuuuh, I... I need you to deliver this letter. To Dr. Alphys."

The human asks her why she doesn't just do it herself.

"...um. W-well... It's kind of personal, but we're friends...so...I'll t-tell you..." A bashful look is on her face. Sans wonders if he should stop listening, he doesn't know if Undyne considers him to be a friend.

But even if he had covered his ears, the next sentence would have made it through anyway with her shouting.

"Hotland SUUUUCKS!!! I don't wanna have to go over there!!! So here you go."

The human takes it in their hands, looking it over.

"Oh, and if you read it..." Undyne's expression goes from pleasant to threatening, "I'll KILL you."

Sans has the urge to say a fish pun.

"Thanks so much! You're the best!!!"

That's the human's sign to get going.

.

.

.

He can't believe it.

_seriously? are you kidding me?_

The letter was a love letter by  _Undyne_ to  _Alphys._ Of course she forgets to sign it.

The human, with a blank looking face, just goes along with it - on a date. With Alphys.

Should he really be listening in on this?

...

She had thought it would be fun to go on a "cute pretend date" with the human to make them feel better. 

...

Sans feels as though he's intruding on something.

The human suggests that they try role playing.

"...That actually sounds kind of fun!" Alphys says.

Alphys as Alphys and the child as Undyne. 

It's friendly enough all the way until Alphys exclaims that she's madly in love with Undyne - and Undyne just so happens to hear it.

.

.

.

The human decides to leave the three of them to run laps.

Sans has a feeling they'll be back soon though, so he decides to watch his brother, Undyne and Alphys run a hundred laps.

Papyrus shouts encouragements to Alphys, who's positively panting by now. 

"Papyrus! Your brother sure could use this workout too."

"YES INDEED! THAT LAZYBONES HAS BEEN BOONDOGGLING EVEN MORE THAN USUAL THESE DAYS! I WISH I KNEW HOW TO GET HIM UP AND ABOUT."

"Yeah! Try calling him!"

Papyrus is dialing his number.

Sans realizes too late that he has his phone with him - it isn't muted. 

His ringtone blasts through the air at his ear. Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys look at the general vicinity of where he is.

He feels cold sweat beading on his skull as he answers the call.

"'sup bro."

**"SANS, IS THAT YOU HIDING IN THE GARBAGE PILE?"**

"i'm pretty sure it is. unless there's some other guy who could blend in with the trash as well as i."

Papyrus hangs up, walks straight to him, picks him up by the armpits and carries him to where Undyne stands.

"What the... What were you doing in there?"

This is the first time he's spoken to Undyne in a while, but it doesn't really feel that way.

"S-Sans? Is that really y-you?"

"the one and only. and i was watching you do your workout thing, the sheer intensity of your workout has me sweating."

"NGAAHH! THAT'S RIGHT! WE'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT EVERYTHING WE DO!"

Sans can see where this is going.

"BUT WHEN I LOOK AT YOU, I SEE NO PASSION FOR ANYTHING! AND WE NEED TO FIX THAT!" She yells with a piranha-like grin on her face. He's glad it's so different from the fallen child's smile, because he has the feeling he'll be seeing it a lot more of it.

"someday," he says, "i've got something to attend to right now. later captain." He turns around so he can teleport somewhere else without getting someone else caught in the tide.

Undyne makes an attempt at his hood to pull him back, it doesn't work.

"oh, and we should catch up later, alph." He adds, realizing how long it's been since he's even seen her. It hadn't felt like too long ago, but it had really been years. In his mind, it's been some hours since he watched her die - but that's not factually correct anymore here.

Papyrus lets out a resigned sigh.

"GOODBYE SANS."

"see ya paps."

He then disappears in a flash of bright blue light.

...

It doesn't take long for him to find the human child again.

They're before Alphys' Lab. They enter it without hesitation.

Sans decides to follow them in.

It's just as he remembered, it's in the same state as it was in the last timeline.

Except for the note on the ground. He doesn't remember that being there. The child doesn't even stop to read it - he can tell by their expression that they already know what's written on it.

They enter the secret elevator.

Oh.

They're going to the True Laboratory.

Sans isn't sure if he's willing to follow them in there.

Before, it gave him chilly feelings. But now? 

It's different. He wants to avoid that place at all costs, now especially because of the human. He knows that the child is absolutely harmless, but the wound is too fresh. He can't go back there, not alone with the human. 

Seeing Alphys die has shaken him up more than he thought it had.

.

.

.

He walks out of the Lab doors.

The heat of Hotland greets him.

The human child will exit eventually.

He narrowly dodges Alphys' line of sight, the look on her face is frazzled.

...

Papyrus is calling him. This time, he was smart enough to put it on vibrate. He takes the call.

His brother is telling him to go to the king's castle.

He doesn't know why, but he feels skeptical about going - it doesn't matter though. He has to do it. Sans isn't about to mess up the way the script is supposed to go, since it seems to work just fine.

He leaves behind Lab and goes to where he know the barrier is. 

Looks like everyone is already here. The human is here as well, was there a back door they took that he missed? It's doesn't matter.

And Toriel. It's Toriel. She's here.

Sans can't believe he's finally seeing her. That image in his head is clear now, there's no mistaking it. This is Toriel, the lady behind the door. And it also looks like the "Asgore's Clone" thing wasn't just a fluke.

"hey guys... what's up?" Sans says, a nonchalant look on his face.

"That voice...!!" Comes the sweet voice of Toriel.

"Hello, I think we may...Know each other?"

Undyne and Asgore have disbelieving looks on their faces.

"oh hey... i recognize your voice, too."

"I am TORIEL." 

There it is. Proof, right before him. There's no describing the feeling in his chest, he's forgotten all about his feelings of skepticism before.

"So nice to meet you." Toriel says.

"the name's sans." he tells her, "and, uh, same."

Asgore looks to be crying a stream of tears.

"Oh! Wait, then...!" Toriel walks to his side and looks to Papyrus, "This must be your brother, Papyrus!"

His brother goes wide eyed.

"Greetings, Papyrus! It is so nice to finally meet you! Your brother has told me so much about you."

Papyrus looks to be abashed. And if he's not mistaken, his cheek bones are even dusted slightly pink.

"WOWIE..." his brother says, "I CAN'T BELIEVE ASGORE'S CLONE KNOWS WHO I AM!!! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!" There's an excessive amount of exclamation marks behind that sentence.

"Hey, Papyrus..." Toriel begins, he can already feel the punchline coming up, "What does a skeleton tile his roof with?"

Papyrus eyes go from wide, to scrutinizing.

"HMMM... SNOW-PROOF ROOF TILES???"

"No, silly! A skeleton tiles his roof with..." dramatic tension builds. "SHIN-gles!"

Sans' smile grows just a little wider. She and him share a meaningful, knowing look.

"I CHANGED MY MIND!!!" When he looks up again at Papyrus, he nearly bursts out laughing. His eyes have gone awry and his eyebrows have slanted. "THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!"

Alphys looks to be sweating bullets.

"Come on, Asgore! It's gonna be OK!" Undyne tells him, "There are plenty of fish in the sea..."

"Y-yeah Asgore!!" Alphys agrees. It looks like Undyne wants to kiss her, "Undyne's totally right about that fish thing! S-sometimes you just got to, uh... S-stop going after furry boss monsters and, uh... J-just get to know a really cute fish...?" Alphys goes on awkwardly, "...It's just a metaphor."

"Well, I think it's a good analogy," Undyne says.

A waving leg comes into view out of nowhere.

Papyrus and Asgore both go googly eyed.

"OH MY GOD! WILL YOU TWO JUST SMOOCH ALREADY!? THE AUDIENCE IS DYING FOR SOME ROMANTIC ACTION!!!" Says a metallic sounding voice.

"HEY, SHUT UP!!! Man, the nerve of that guy! Right, Alphys!?? Uh, Alphys?"

"No. He's right... LET'S DO IT." The lizard monster says boldly, lips puckered and all.

"Well? Uh? I guess? If you want to? Then??" Don't hold anything back!!!" The two of them begin to gravitate to each other - until Toriel gets in between the two.

"Not in front of the human!" She says, almost startled.

Sans looks at the human child bemusedly, they have a disappointed sort of look on their face. It seems that they're a hard core Alphyne shipper.

Alphys apologizes for getting carried away, while Undyne has the biggest most happy smile he's ever seen on her face before - and it's not even one percent murderous at all.

Toriel giggles.

"My child, it seems as if you must stay here for a while. But looking at all the friends you have made... I think... I think you will be happy here." Her smile is so sincere he can't help but smile sincerely too. 

The human has a determined look on their face.

Something is coming.

"H-hey, that reminds me. Papyrus, YOU called everyone here, right? Well, besides, uh, her." Alphys brings to attention, "Uh, anyway... If I got here before you... How did you know how to call everybody?" 

"LET'S JUST SAY..." 

The human tenses.

...

"A TINY FLOWER HELPED ME."

As that statement seeps in, his eyes retract into pinpricks. 

"A tiny... flower?" Her voice reminds him of the time she begged for MERCY. It trembles and shudders in mortification. Cold sweat beads on her head.

...

Then, a vine strikes them all, it wraps around them and it constricts them to the point of pain. 

They're all suspended above the ground, feet hanging limp.

"You IDIOTS." An all too familiar voice says.

His bones feel as though they could fracture.

"While you guys were having your little pow-wow... I took the human SOULS!" A sinister smile mars its face, "And now, not only are THOSE under my power... But all of your FRIENDS' SOULS are gonna be mine, too!"

It laughs.

"And you know what the best part is?" it looks smugly at the human, _"It's all your fault."_

"It's all because you MADE THEM love you! All the time you spent listening to them... Encouraging them...Caring about them... Without that, they wouldn't have come here."

"And now, with their souls and the humans' together... I will achieve my REAL FORM. Hee hee..."

The human child asks the flower why they're still doing this. 

"Huh?" The flower goes, "Don't you get it?" It looks at the human, "This is all just a GAME."

"If you leave the Underground satisfied, you'll 'win' the game." Its voice becomes angered, "If you 'win,' you won't want to 'play' with me anymore. And what would I do then?"

It's face stretches into an insane grin.

"But this game between us will NEVER end." It says, "I'll hold victory in front of you, just within your reach... And then tear it away before you grasp it."

"Over and over and over..." Its face becomes increasingly mutilated. It laughs again.

"Listen. If you DO defeat me, I'll give you your 'happy ending.'" It says temptingly, "I'll bring your friends back. I'll destroy the barrier. Everyone will finally be satisfied. But that WON'T happen."

"You...!" It says, aggravated, "I'll keep you here no matter what!"

The human child's soul appears in a closed of box and the flower begins to attack unfairly.

_"Even if it means killing you a million times!!!"_

 

 

13/20 HP

 

 

It laughs insanely.

 

06/20 HP

 

The human is attacked by another circle of bullets.

 

01/20

 

The circle of bullets slowly begins to close, Flowey's shrieking laughs clawing at them.

A ring of fire repels the bullets.

_Ping!_

The smile gets wiped right off of the flower's face.

"What?" It says, confused.

"Do not be afraid my child... No matter what happens... We will always be there to protect you...!" Toriel says, a hopeful light glimmering in her eyes.

Another rage filled attack is made on the child, but it's blocked by Undyne and Papyrus.

_Ping! Ping!_

"THAT'S RIGHT, HUMAN! YOU CAN WIN!!" His brother says, "JUST DO WHAT I, WOULD DO... BELIEVE IN YOU!!!"

Undyne gives a brave smile.

"Hey! Human! If you got past ME, you can do ANYTHING!" Says the head of the Royal Guard, "So don't worry! We're with you all the way!"

Sans decides to pipe up.

"huh? you haven't beaten this guy yet? come on, this weirdo's got nothin' on you," he says.

_Ping! Ping!_

"Technically, it's impossible for you to beat him..." Alphys says without a stutter, "B-but... Somehow, I know you can do it!!" She smiles confidently at the child.

"Human, for the future of humans and monsters... You have to stay determined...!"

Monsters begin to pop up. They all utter words of encouragement.

"We're with you too!"

"C'mon, you got this!"

"You've got to win!"

"You can do it!"

Their HOPE is restored to 20.

"Urrrgh... NO!" The flowers says, "Unbelievable!! This can't be happening...!"

"You... YOU...!"

. . .

_"I can't believe you're all so STUPID."_

A horrifying smile splits across its face.

 

"ALL OF YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!!!"

 

:) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no...
> 
> (Whoops, I'm running out of pre-written chapters)  
> (The next chapter's going to have the awkward introduction to the surface! :D)


	17. The Surface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I... I messed up. Asriel. I messed up, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the updates from here on out are a little slower! I've sort of run out of chapters that I've already written out... and things that I need to do are piling up...
> 
> Songs to share:
> 
>  
> 
> [Hopes and Dreams - Orchestrated, By: Rush Garcia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYmn5BQIxdQ&list=PLjr4imAUPB5XyXM8m_gaz7dJy6F_L7499&index=296)
> 
>  
> 
> .
> 
> :)

_..._

_"Chara..."_

_SAVE._

_"I'm so alone, Chara..."_

_SAVE._

_"I'm so afraid, Chara..."_

_SAVE._

_"Chara, I..."_

_SAVE._

_"I..."_

 

* * *

 

 

"ugh... my head."

"FINALLY AWAKE, BROTHER?"

"uh, i think so."

Sans opens his eyes to stare at a rocky ceiling. The feel of soft dirt underneath him.

"...what happened?" He asks.

"We have no idea." The answer coming from Undyne, "We all just woke up here. Well, no - YOU just woke up. The rest of us have been awake for nearly half an hour."

"the kid?"

"Out like a light," Undyne says.

Just a meter to his left is the human child, brown hair splayed out across the ground. 

He stands up and stares at the child and their peaceful expression.

"so, what happens now?" he asks them all.

"We go to the surface."

.

.

.

The child slowly awakens. 

"Oh! You are awake! Thank goodness!" Toriel says, a relieved look on her face.

"W-we were so worried...!" Alphys says, similarly relieved. "It felt like you were out forever!"

"Yeah! Any longer and I would have freaked out!" Her expression changes viciously, "Tell us next time you decide to take a nap, okay!?"

"yeah. you made papyrus cry like a baby," he says, side glancing his brother.

"WHAT!! I DIDN'T CRY!!! I DON'T CRY!!!" He denies. "I JUST... CAUGHT SOMETHING IN MY EYE."

"what did you catch?"

"TEARS!!!" He bawls.

"Now, now. The important part is that Frisk is alright." Asgore says, "Here, Frisk. Why not drink some tea?" He says, a well meaning smile on his face, "It'll make you feel better."

"Errr... How about we give them space, first? They must be very exhausted. Though, from what, I am not certain," Toriel admits, "Frisk... We do not remember exactly what happened. There was a flower... and then, everything went white." She says, "But now the barrier is gone. When you are ready, we will all return to the surface. It seems the door to the east will lead us there now. But before then... Perhaps you might want to take a walk?" She continues, "You can say goodbye to all your wonderful friends. Do as you wish. We will all wait for you here."

Frisk nods and turns around, looking eager to do something. 

As soon as they leave the vicinity, he excuses himself. 

He's about to go following the human again, but he's not going to say that out loud. Chances are, they'll think it's a breach of privacy. 

Frisk walks back and back. They take the boat to Snowdin. And they go into the Ruins.

Sans wonders what they could be doing.

They trace their steps right to the very beginning, where it all started.

There's another child here. A... goat?

Frisk looks like they want to run and hug this monster child. He wears a green and yellow striped sweater and seems reminiscent of both Toriel and Asgore.

But it can't be their dead son. It just can't.

"Don't worry about me." He says, "Someone has to take care of these flowers."

But the human child continues to bother him.

"Frisk, please leave me alone." He looks down sorrowfully. "I can't come back," he says, "I just can't, OK?"

...

"I don't want to break their hearts all over again. It's better if they never see me."

Who is he referring to?

He turns around again to stare at the golden flower bed.

"... Why are you still here? Are you trying to keep me company? Frisk..." The monster child looks up at them, "Hey. Let me ask you a question. Frisk... why did you come here?" He asks. "Everyone knows the legend, right...? 'Travelers who climb Mt. Ebott are said to disappear.'" He quotes. 

"Frisk." He addresses them, "Why would you ever climb a mountain like that? Was it foolishness? Was it fate? Or was it..." He begins to look down again, a sad frown on his face, "Because you...?"

...

"Well. Only you know the answer, don't you?"

The child turns away from the flower bed once more.

"I know why Chara climbed the mountain." Sans pauses at that name, "It wasn't for a very happy reason."

Sans knows what that implies. 

"Frisk. I'll be honest with you," he says, "Chara hated humanity. Why they did, they never talked about it. But they felt very strongly about that."

Who is this monster child?

"Frisk... You really ARE different from Chara."

"In fact, though you have similar, uh, fashion choices... I don't know why I ever acted like you were the same person."

"Maybe... The truth is... Chara wasn't really the greatest person. While, Frisk... You're the type of friend I wish I always had. So maybe I was kinda projecting a little bit."

"Let's be honest. I did some weird stuff as a flower."

As a...flower? A flower? 

No.

No way. This child _can't_ be Flowey. 

Yet it is. 

"There's one last thing I feel like I should tell you. Frisk, when Chara and I combined our souls together... The control over our body was actually split between us. They were the one that picked up their own empty body. And then, when we got to the village... They were the one that wanted to... to use our full power. I was the one that resisted."

No doubt, this is the fallen Prince.

"And then, because of me, we... Well, that's why I ended up a flower." He says, "Frisk... This whole time, I've blamed myself for that decision. That's why I adopted that horrible view of the world. 'Kill or be killed.'" He quotes himself.

"But now... after meeting you... Frisk, I don't regret that decision anymore. I did the right thing. If I killed those humans... We would have had to wage war against all of humanity. And in the end, everyone went free, right?"

Prince... Prince Asriel. Asriel was his name.

"I still feel kind of sad, knowing how long it took... So maybe it wasn't a perfect decision. But you can't regret hard choices your whole life, right? Well, not that I have much of a life left. But that's besides the point."

His eyes are resigned.

"Frisk, thank you for listening to me. You should really go be with your friends now. OK? Oh, and, please... In the future, if you uh, see me... Don't think of it as me, OK? I just want you to remember me like this. Someone that was your friend for a little while."

Sans can respect that sentiment.

"Oh, and Frisk... Be careful in the outside world, OK? Despite what everyone thinks, it's not as nice as it is here. There are a lot of Floweys out there. And not everything can be resolved by just being nice. Frisk... Don't kill, and don't be killed, alright? That's the best you can strive for."

...

" _Asriel..._ " something hisses. Asriel stares at the human child, looking startled. Their skin goes white and their eyes a bloody red, "You...you..." the hostility melts away as soon as it comes though, melting into something different. Something that isn't Frisk. "I thought that..."

"I... I messed up. Asriel. I messed up, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

The monster child, Asriel, continues to stare as though he's looking at a ghost.

"Chara...? No. No, you're Frisk. You can't be Chara." His face is one of confusion and disbelief.

"It's _me_." They say, approaching the fallen Prince. He stands stock still, "I know," they whisper, "What I did wasn't right. I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have pushed you into following that stupid plan. It's all my f-fault..." They wrap their arms around the child, almost hesitantly, but when he in turn, hugs them back, they go soft.

"Haha... I don't want to let go..." The monster says. "Chara... how did this happen? How are you here?"

"I -" Their voice hiccups and coughs and something dark seeps from their mouth and eyes. "I have to go."

They unwrap their arms from their friend and brother. They promptly collapse to their knees and their skin goes from pale to normal. The human child breathes heavily. 

"It's... alright. It's gone for now," the human child, Frisk, says.

"Frisk?" The fallen Prince looks worried, "What was that? What happened?"

"Something about you... triggers them. I need to go."

Frisk runs from Asriel without another word. He reaches an arm out, but it quickly drops back to his side. He turns back to the bed of golden flowers, a saddened frown upon his face.

.

.

.

"Chara, that was risky."

_I know, but it was worth it._

.

.

.

Sans looks warily at the human. They still look a little shaken up.

.

.

.

"Oh my..." Toriel says, in awe.

The bright golden light of the setting sun casts a shadow behind them all. A breeze blows into them all. The sky is a perfect gold, it's way better than he imagined. It's nothing like the Judgement Hall. He'll never look at that Hall the same way again.

"Isn't it beautiful, everyone?" Asgore says, a smile upon his face.

"Wow..." Alphys mutters, "it's e-even better than on TV." Pink comes across her face, "WAY better! Better than I ever imagined!"

"Frisk, you LIVE with this!?" Undyne goes, "The sunlight is so nice... and the air is so fresh! I really feel alive!" Her face is content.

"HEY SANS..." his brother starts, "WHAT'S THAT GIANT BALL?"

"we call that "the sun," my friend."

"THAT'S THE SUN!? WOWIE!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M FINALLY MEETING THE SUN!!!"

"I could stand here and watch this for hours..." Asgore says wistfully.

"Yes, it is beautiful, is it not? But we should really think about what comes next." Toriel says.

"Oh, right." He says, "Everyone... This is the beginning of a bright new future. An era of peace between humans and monsters. Frisk... I have something to ask of you." The king looks to the human child, "Will you act as our ambassador to the humans?"

They agree.

"YEAH! FRISK WILL BE THE BEST AMBASSADOR! AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS... WILL BE THE BEST MASCOT!" His brother says. "I'LL GO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION!"

"welp." Sans says, watching as Papyrus bounds away. "someone's gotta keep him from getting into trouble. see you guys."

He then walks the opposite way somewhere else.

"Man, do I have to do EVERYTHING?" He hears Undyne say, "Papyrus, wait!!!" She says, a piranha like grin on her face.

"Hey, Undyne!! Wait up!!"

...

Really, he just needs so time to himself. All of this has tired him out and run him into the ground. His sockets feel heavy and he's starting to feel a little off balance on his feet. He slides down to an out of sight tree, one out of many in the mountain forest. He leans against it, feeling dizzy. 

Taking a little downtime can't hurt, can it?

He slides down the trunk of the tree, hitting the ground with a dull thump. 

Yes. Yes it can. Rest can wait until later. 

Sans slaps his cheeks three times and hops to his feet again. 

He takes a shortcut to where he thinks Papyrus is at. It isn't exact, but it's close enough. He walks the rest of the way to his brother, where he's making his "first impression" on the humans. They seem to be at the base of the mountain.

He's just in time for the show.

Screams ring out noisily, seemingly shaking the ground. Or maybe the earthquake is just in his head. 

Humans scatter in all directions. One is holding her phone in a shaking hand.

"Oh my god." She says, "Please get here quickly. Demons! Demons I say!"

As though she feels Undyne's gaze on her, she scrambles away with a panic-stricken face. 

"OH." Papyrus says. 

"i think you might've scared them all away," Sans says. 

Papyrus then says, "SCARE THEM? OF COURSE NOT! HOW AM I REMOTELY THREATENING!?"

Sans thinks that his brother's tall stature alone is enough to be at least a little intimidating. 

And the fact he's a skeleton. That's another one.

A shrill sounding alarm approaches them.

"uh, what's that sound?" He asks them all. None of them say a thing. 

His question is soon answered though, it's the human version of the Royal Guard - just more wimpy and human like.

"S-s-state your in-intentions!" A human in a blue uniform is pointing a quivering gun at them.

Undyne's expression becomes threatening at the sight of the weapon in the policeman's hands. In return, the human flinches back.

Sans bets this guy thinks they're aliens of some sort.

"hey. put the weapon down first, then we can talk." Sans says.

The policeman's partner puts a hand on his shoulder, signalling to put down the gun. Slowly, he lowers the gun and pockets it. He looks even more nervous with the gun not in his hands.

"so uh... how do i explain this. we are uh...monsters?" Now that he says it out loud, it doesn't sound very non-threatening, "and we've been trapped in that mountain-" he raises his hand to point at said mountain. The human policeman flinches back and his hand inches to his gun yet again, but his partner firmly flicks him on the forehead.

"yeah uh, ever heard of us?" Sans asks uncertainly. If they have, it'll make explaining a whole lot easier, but it doesn't seem he'll be lucking out this time.

"No, we haven't." The non-quivering policewoman says. "Are you... another species or something?"

"...i guess you could say that."

So far, his brother, Undyne and Alphys have not helped him in anyway yet. He'd really appreciate someone butting in right about now, but they look content staying silent. Undyne no longer has a threatening look on her face.

"so anyways, this kid helped free us." Sans says shortly.

"Us? How many are there of you?"

"an entire civilization."

The woman scratches her head, looking confused. 

"...What now?" She seems to be at a loss for words. But her partner, who is quivering significantly less, whispers in her ear.

"Ah! Good idea. We'll call up the mayor."

"your uh, boss?"

"Yeah. In the meanwhile... I'm guessing you don't... have anywhere to stay?"

"not really."

"Hold on." She holds her phone up to her ear.

"Hello? This is officer Sarah Osgood speaking. It's urgent." A pause, "Yes mayor. There are... monsters here. They're really quite non-threatening though." Another pause, "How many? A civilization. And they need some place to stay."

"Alright. A hotel, got it."

She pockets her phone. 

"So, what's happening?" Undyne asks.

She looks slightly startled at the new voice, but otherwise, she holds herself together.

"We're arranging for a place for you to stay right now, but it'll take sometime. And... you said a child helped to free you from Mt. Ebott?"

"yeah," Sans says this time.

"Could you tell me their name?"

"Frisk, that's their name." Alphys pipes up.

"Frisk! They've been missing for sometime now. I'm glad she's safe. I'll have to report this to the orphanage," she says.

 _orphanage? frisk is an orphan?_ He hadn't known.

"alright then. i'll uh, get them to you."

"You'll be able to find me at the police station."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love Chara and Asriel's relationship! So you'll definitely be seeing more of it later on.


	18. City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _that's right. there's an actual fucking sky above me now,_ he thinks to himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, really busy right now and I can't find a song ;-;
> 
> Anyways, hope you like this chapter!

Arrangements are made, they're staying at a hotel. 

They discuss who's rooming with who, Undyne is, predictably, wanting to stay with Alphys. 

He feels like Undyne and Alphys might be missing a step or two in their relationship. Sans is pretty sure that most monsters go on a date before they start living together. He guesses it's alright since there are two beds.

Asgore is getting a single room. He and Toriel probably won't be getting together again anytime soon. Or ever. Killing children happens to be quite a grave thing to do, especially when you're killing children that your wife also happens to think of as her offspring.

Frisk is rooming with Toriel, and he's rooming with Papyrus. The rest of monster kind make arrangements of their own.

They all somehow get put on the same floor, and same hall. Their rooms are literally adjacent from each other. 

"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE ON THE SURFACE!" Papyrus says. But he can say confidently that it's closer to yelling than normal talking.

"I know right!?" Undyne agrees. 

To cut it short, everyone is ecstatic.

They're finally seeing the sun, the  _real_ sky, and soon, the stars. 

The sky slowly gets darker, from golden yellow and warm orange, to blue, and then purple. Purple turns to an inky black, and the stars appear like twinkling lights in a dark city.

He's only ever dreamed of such a sight.

Literally.

And metaphorically, too.

It's a quiet city.

They'd caused quite the uproar with the human gossip channels after news of their release from the Underground had spread. The news speakers on TV almost look disbelieving.

Frisk quickly becomes the official ambassador of monsters.

But, there's something still left to do about Frisk today.

He knocks the door of Toriel and Frisk's room and Toriel promptly asks him, "Who is there?"

He isn't sure if now is a good time for a knock knock joke, so he decides to take the safer route.

"tori, i think we need to talk."

Toriel opens the door, a worried look upon her face at the lack of a joke.

"Yes, what is it?"

"where's frisk?"

"They are getting cleaned up. It is astonishing how dirty they got during their trip through the Underground!"

"oh." he says shortly, before following up with what he came to say in the first place, "tori, did you know the kid's an orphan?"

Toriel doesn't look very shocked, he can only assume that's a good thing.

"I figured that to be the case. They asked to stay with me, they have no other place to go."

Good for him, he'll be able to keep a closer eye on the kid that way.

"Asgore is arranging a meeting with the president to discuss matters of law and monster rights. He's aiming for monster kind to receive the same rights as everyone else, and if he succeeds, I plan to adopt Frisk officially," Toriel says.

"makes sense," he says in response, "but until then, you've gotta return them to the orphanage. the kid's been missing for a long time, i've heard."

"Can it not wait until tomorrow?"

He supposes it could, and he tells Toriel just that. She lets out a relieved breath. 

Sans feels sudden unease with letting the human child be in the same room as Toriel.

But Toriel is evidently tired out. She seems to sag a little. 

So Sans leaves her be, with a little "goodnight" and wave. 

.

.

.

The next morning, he wakes up even before his brother can. The sun hasn't even risen yet, but he's sure that the sight will be just as enamoring as the first sundown had been.

He lets out a shuddering breath, taking a long moment to re-orient himself. 

 _that's right. there's an actual fucking sky above me now,_ he thinks to himself. 

The first week will be rough.

People will stare.

He'll have to try even harder keep up this facade of being happy, especially with the demon around watching him and everyone else.

If repeating the exact same words over and over again in the Underground was difficult for him, he's not so sure how the surface will serve him.

Frisk needs to return to the orphanage. 

At first, Sans tells Toriel he wants to come with, drop the kid off at the police station and say goodbye. 

But she only tells him that she doesn't want him to overexert himself with how tired he apparently looks.

Damn.

He guesses he doesn't look as chipper as he'd like to.

So instead, he decides to spend some quality time with his brother. 

...

Along with Undyne and Alphys. 

"Hey," Alphys begins shyly, "how's g-going to the beach sound? I-I've heard that this s-season is peak t-time to go."

Sans doesn't doubt that Alphys had heard such a thing from one of her animes.

They all agree to go, Papyrus says he could use some sun tanning - whatever that is.

Their hotel isn't even that far from the beach, which is convenient for them - they don't even have to call a taxi. And besides, he's fairly sure that even if they tried calling for one, the human driver would probably freak out and pretend not to see them.

Undyne tells them she's going to go get some swim gear.

And within minutes, she's back, sweating and all.

Frankly, it looks like she sprinted from this spot, to the Underground and back.

.

.

.

The sand is pleasantly sun warmed. 

Per Papyrus' pleading, he's left behind his slippers - but no matter what his brother says, he'll never be able to part him and his jacket. And well, it's not like heat affects him.

"Wow! This place is b-beautiful!" Alphys says, looking stunned.

At the sight of four monsters, the beach goes deserted. It dampens the mood for approximately five seconds, until the excitement returns full force - as excited as he can be with his kind of mindset. 

"We've gotta invite some of the Royal Guard here, they'd love this place!" Undyne exclaims.

Undyne and his brother begin to aggressively set up the beach towels and beach umbrellas. 

"huh. i haven't thought of a  _shingle_ beach pun yet."

"SANS! YOU'RE RUINING THE MOOD!!"

"gillty as charged."

"NGAAHHH!!"

...

Undyne, sun-proof and all, finds a net to play volleyball. 

This reminds him of one of Alphys' animes.

He's currently sitting beneath the aggressively set umbrella on the beach towel, listening to the seagulls squawk.  

"HEY PUNK! GET OVER HERE!" 

He wonders who Undyne is addressing. He checks behind him to make sure she's calling him and not some poor kid who happened to be walking by. 

Yup. She's talking to him.

"why?" he asks back.

"BECAUSE I TOLD YOU TO!" She says, a snarl on her lips.

He obliges, because being carried by Undyne is not pleasant.

He knows from experience.

"Listen up, we need two fair teams!" She tells him, hands on her hips.

He can see where this is going.

"i think i'll uh, pass."

"Alright, now get over there and -  _what_ did you just say?"

Her expression is mildly threatening, but he repeats his earlier words.

"BUT, BROTHER... IF YOU DO NOT JOIN ME, UNDYNE AND ALPHYS WILL FEEL BAD WHEN THEY LOSE AGAINST ME BECAUSE IT WILL BE TWO AGAINST ONE! THEIR PRIDE IS AT STAKE, SANS."

Undyne just nods.

...

Sans finally caves in and joins his brother so that they stand side by side on one side of the net, Undyne and Alphys stand on the other side, volleyball in hand.

Undyne explains the rules so quickly that he almost doesn't understand.

And then they begin. Undyne smacks the volleyball like it's her worst enemy. It hurtles towards his skull like a deathtrap and he quickly ducks out of the way. 

Time to pull out the fish puns.

"woah. you trying to  _krill_ me or something?"

Undyne ignores him and instead yells that you're not supposed to dodge the volleyball, you face it head on.

If he didn't know how to dodge, he'd be dust, especially with stats like his.

The next serve, Undyne gives the ball to Alphys to serve. She sets the ball much softer.

Papyrus hits it back with vigor.

Undyne responds and strikes the ball at him once again and he dodges once again.

"Damn! Papyrus, why's your brother so good at dodging!?"

"I HAVE NO IDEA."

They just continue on.

He gets the distinct feeling Undyne is intentionally aiming the ball at him. She becomes increasingly more miffed.

"see, i've got a serious  _fishue_ with your attempts on my life."

Finally, they decide they've had enough of volleyball and that it's more boring than it looks.

He huffs in relief and falls back down on the beach towel under the umbrella while the rest of them dive headfirst into the water.

 _they've got way too much energy_ , he thinks.

He closes his eyes.

.

.

.

_CRRACK!_

_His ribs give away._

_Shrieking laughs pierce his ears._

_The searing cold pain engulfs his soul and he feels it begin to give away, just like his fragile bones. The world spins upside down in his eyes, the golden light makes his head feel light._

_His body hits the tiled floor dully and the laughing begins to approach him, it gets closer and closer before its source is right in front of his eyes. The human child's legs have been obliterated. Nails red with caked blood._

_A smile splits their face and liquid black spills out like blood. It drips onto his face and it seeps into his eye sockets and teeth._

_He can't move._

_Their giggles are hysterical as they drag their jagged knife to him, it leaves a blackened burned trail behind it._

_A hand sinks into his shoulder, unbearably tight. The knife lifts to be level with his neck. The bloodied metal glints and in it he can see his melting smile and half his jaw gone._

_Their knife shakes as it slowly lowers._

_"Sa...ns..."_

_"You...r mo...nth is u...p."_

.

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Sorry not sorry.


	19. Fearless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He doesn't kill innocent children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, it's finally summer break.  
> And I still have so much to get done ;-;

He abruptly wakes up to the worried face of his brother. For several moments, he feels too stunned to say anything.

"SANS, YOU WERE TWITCHING IN YOUR SLEEP! WHAT WERE YOU DREAMING ABOUT?"

"uh." He snaps out of his momentary daze, "i was dreaming about... undyne eating a fish."

Before Papyrus can react to his made-up dream, Undyne herself calls them to hurry up or be left behind.

Which is actually not much of a threat, considering the hotel is literally a sixty second walk away.

.

.

.

Undyne and Papyrus seem to inhale their lunch, while Alphys struggles to keep up. He doesn't even try. 

They want to go back to the beach to resume their game at the beach, which they apparently hadn't finished. 

He tells them he'd rather stay behind this time.

"BROTHER!" Papyrus almost has an affronted look to his face, "THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BONDING OPPORTUNITY AND YOU SHOULD TAKE IT!"

"nah bro, think i'll  _pasta_ this time around."

"SANS! YOU ARE INSUFFERABLE."

In the end, they let him stay behind - despite Undyne's protests of him having to get off his lazy butt. 

.

.

.

The hotel is quiet. Unsurprisingly, all the other monsters have gone out to seek new friends or explore. Asgore is gone as well, with the prime minister. Sans is alone in the building, at least until Toriel comes back.

It reminds him of the eerie silence that would accompany him in the genocide timelines. 

Walking alone in Snowdin forest, finding not one monster alive. It gives him an empty sort of feeling, thinking about such a time. 

He thinks about the fallen child. The parasite possessing Frisk's soul. 

He wonders how they can even still call Chara their friend, after all that's happened. It's unthinkable - because Sans definitely wouldn't do such a thing. Frisk is childlike and nothing like the real monstrosities that humans can become.

Now, he has less than a month. Thirty days to figure out how to detach the shadow from their soul. 

He  _could_ give the DT extractor another try but... he doesn't have much faith in himself that he'll be able to step into that place without breaking down into nerves.

If he pushed them into the Core - he's very sure that doing such a thing would work, but he doesn't want to have to resort to doing that.

He doesn't kill innocent children.

...

His head starts to pound with the thinking he's doing. He contemplates taking a break.

.

.

.

Someone is knocking on his door. 

 _must be toriel,_ he thinks, as he forces himself up off the floor.

"who's there?" he asks.

"Olive."

"olive who?"

"Olive next door to you!" She replies. Sans can hear the smile in her voice.

Slapping a smile on his own face, he opens the door.

"hey tori," he greets her.

Her chipper mood seems to dissolve right before his eyes.

"Are you alright, Sans? You look as if you've barely slept," Toriel tells him.

"ah well. paps took me along with undyne and alph to the beach. guess you could say i'm feeling dead in the water."

"You must tell them when you are simply not up to the task of enjoying a beach, especially if it makes you this tired!" 

Toriel is worried enough about him that she doesn't notice his attempt at a pun. He can't look  _that_ tired, can he? Well sure, he certainly feels like it, but still. Maybe Toriel is a more observant lady than he gives her credit for.

"okay okay, i will," Sans tells her. 

...

"Promise?"

 _shit,_ he thinks. He can't refuse the look she's giving him. 

"alright. i promise," he caves.

They talk inside the room, about everything really - mostly Frisk though. She isn't worried about them, apparently. He'd expected the opposite, coming from her, but Frisk's trip through the Underground had really reassured her that they'd stay safe. 

"Not a single scratch on them!" She remarks, "Really though. Thank you, Sans, for protecting them on their journey."

"it was no problem, tori," he replies, despite having not really done anything.

She hugs him tightly. Her fury arms make him feel even smaller than he already is. He awkwardly pats her back.

"Oh dear, what time is it?" Toriel asks him suddenly.

"uh, 3:01, why?" He immediately realizes his question is a stupid one. 

"Asgore and the human president should be on TV now! Let us watch them."

She stands up, there's a mini crater in the blankets where she once sat. 

When she sits down again, remote in hand, he slides a little on the bed - that's how much the mattress dips.

The black screen of the TV comes to life with color. It doesn't take long for her to find the right channel.

Asgore and the president sit there, side by side. Toriel listens intently as the president officially announces monsters to be welcome in the country.

Sans tunes out a lot of the president's and Asgore's speeches though.

He can't help but feel as though the decisions had been made a little quickly, but there wasn't much that could be done about it, the entirety of monster kind had been waiting on it.

He tries not to dwell on it.

The president addresses several other issues. They're well aware of the unrest the general population of humans were in because of the monsters, he reminds them that the monsters are as sentient as humans and that they must be adjusting to the surface as well.

They talk a lot more, Asgore clears up the history behind monster kind as well. It reminds him of the time he was still in school and about two times shorter, the day the king had come in as a special guest to give a history lesson on monsters and humans.

Sans can guess that after watching this, a good majority of the humans are likely to be feeling more enlightened.

That's good, because he really doesn't want to spend that one month up on the surface doing nothing but staying indoors in fear of being attacked the moment he stepped into the open.

His phone emits a sound, notifying him of a message.

Taking it out of his pocket, he checks the screen.

It's Frisk.

Sans quickly excuses himself, Toriel doesn't pay much attention as she watches the TV.

 

**Frisk: Are you watching Asgore and the president right now?**

**i was until you texted me:**

 

**Frisk: Oh**

**Frisk: Where's Papyrus?**

 

**hanging out with the fish lady and alph:**

 

**Frisk: Mom?**

 

**watching the tv:**

**and smiling:**

 

**Frisk: Lol**

**Frisk: She's with you?**

 

**yeah:**

**she came and knocked on my door:**

**and kind of stole the tv:**

 

**Frisk: She's in your room, too?**

**Frisk: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

 

**kid dont even start:**

 

**Frisk: You know you like her**

**Frisk: *Legible eyebrow wiggle***

 

**come on:**

**i dont:**

**hows the orphanage:**

 

**Frisk: *Legible sigh***

 

Thankfully, they drop the subject of Toriel easily.

 

**Frisk: Well, it's not that great but it's not that good either.**

**Frisk: I want to go home.**

 

He refrains from telling them that they don't actually really have a home yet.

They'll need to fix that.

 

**well, tori can legally adopt you now:**

**monsters have the same rights as humans:**

 

**Frisk: Wow really?**

**Frisk: That was fast**

**Frisk: Not that I'm complaining**

 

**other kids treating you alright there?:**

 

**Frisk: Not as badly as they did before**

**Frisk: I think they're kind of afraid of me**

**Frisk: Especially because Toriel was the one who dropped me off and they probably saw.**

 

**wdym by "not as badly as they did before"?:**

 

It takes Frisk several moments to respond.

 

**Frisk: They used to bully me and steal my stuff**

**Frisk: The reason I fell into the Underground in the first place was because they told me they hid everything in the forest**

**Frisk: I didn't mean to fall though**

**Frisk: It was an accident**

Sans isn't sure how to respond, but he's saved from having to do so when Frisk tells him that they need to go.

They say their goodbyes and then Sans is left staring at their messages.

Frisk had been bullied.

He shouldn't have been all that surprised. Frisk was soft-spoken and their pacifistic nature would have made them an easy target. A punching bag, if you would. They refused to fight back.

But he was shocked anyway, because Frisk was strong and kind. They had made so many long lasting friendships in the span of the time they had spent in the Underground, not a feat easily done by someone who was weak-willed or shy.

Maybe Frisk hadn't always been the fearless child that he knew them to be.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm... I'm sort of indecisive about the whole "Sans and Toriel" thing.


	20. Day Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've uh never adopted before - so I have no idea how it works and how long it takes. And as you can probably see, I sort of want to get all this prep over with lol.
> 
> (gee, I meant to post this on Saturday but then stuff happened so I'm a few days late whoops)  
> (and this was meant to be longer but I didn't want to keep you all waiting haha)

All too quickly, the day passes and the next arrives.

Papyrus is on his phone, house hunting while Sans is, as always, lazing around.

"SANS! I BELIEVE I HAVE FOUND THE MOST SUITABLE HOUSE YET!"

Excitedly, Papyrus bounds over to his side, shoving his phone screen in front of his own.

"paps, there are _seven_ bedrooms in this one. why would we need that many?"

Sheepishly, Papyrus pulls the phone back slightly.

"WELL, I HAD THE THOUGHT THAT  _ALL_ OF US COULD LIVE IN ONE HOUSE."

Sans considers it himself for a moment, thinking that it might be nice - especially since Papyrus practically lives at Undyne's house half the time, and vice versa. Frisk wouldn't need to choose someone over someone else to live with. They'd undoubtedly feel at least a little guilty if they had to pick someone over another.

He supposes it would be 'One Big Happy Family.'

"that's a pretty cool idea bro, maybe text the other to see what they think," Sans suggests.

Papyrus positively beams, and a proud look is written all over his face.

Dutifully, Papyrus creates a group chat that includes himself, Sans, Undyne, Alphys, Frisk, Toriel and before he puts Asgore, Sans stops him and tells him that he thinks that Toriel probably wouldn't want to have to live with Asgore. 

 _especially after their splitting,_ he adds in his mind.

Though reluctantly, Papyrus understands and decides to leave Asgore be.

The others are... more receptive of the idea than he thought they'd be. In fact, they wholeheartedly accept it.

Sans was correct in thinking Frisk would rather not have to choose one over another.

Gradually, the hype increases to the point that they're all making plans to go back to their respective homes in the Underground to retrieve their belongings.

 _wow,_ he thinks,  _that escalated quickly._

 

 

**Frisk: Mom don't forget. You still need to adopt me.**

 

**Toriel: OH DEAR**

**Toriel: Oh, my apologies**

**Toriel: I had the capitals lock on**

**Toriel: Frisk, do not worry**

**Toriel: I did not forget you**

 

 

Sans has no idea how adoptions work, but it seems that Toriel is well studied, so he guesses it's fine. 

 

* * *

 

 _it's been literally like an hour since paps got that idea,_ Sans thinks tiredly, as Papyrus sprints like his life depends on it with him on his shoulders. Apparently, he's racing with Undyne and Alphys to the Underground to pick up their belongings.

They're there in no time.

It's ridiculous, especially since Papyrus was carrying him -- but then again, Sans's weight is probably nearly nonexistent compared to Alphys -- not that he's trying to be rude of course. 

It seems that Undyne is a sore loser. It would have been funny if he wasn't feeling so nauseous. 

Maybe it's the Underground's atmosphere.

Yeah.

That has to be it.

Toriel is relying on him to pick up her belongings in the Ruins, since she says she'd like to adopt Frisk as soon as she possibly can and she wants to get it all done today -- which he seems rather ambitious to him, but he won't say anything -- she doesn't really have the time to go to the Underground personally. That's fine.

She really is excited. 

Sans wishes he had even half as much enthusiasm as her.

"Papyrus, that idea was literally the GREATEST," Undyne yells about how great it'll be, having Frisk with them all. "AND NO BORING TRAVELLING BETWEEN EACH OTHER'S HOUSES! THIS IS THE BEST!!"

Feeling the ground under his feet again doesn't help his nausea. He hopes it'll go away by itself.

Alphys is looking a little antsy, but underneath that, he can see that she's truly happy. 

"UNDYNE!" Papyrus says, "THE RACE IS STILL ON! WHICHEVER GROUP THAT ARRIVES BACK AT THE HOTEL'S FRONT DOOR SHALL BE CROWNED THE WINNER!"

"You're on, Papyrus!" Undyne completely neglects to mention Sans.

 _oh well,_ he thinks.

Sans leaves them be. They know where he's planning to go.

He retreats into a secluded spot and teleports directly into the Ruins.

The royal purple carpet appears beneath his slippers as quickly as he does. Sans doesn't wish to stay any longer than he needs to. He stands in front of an old tree with fallen red leaves scattered underneath it in abundance.

He pays it no mind and keeps going.

The last time he had been in this place, he had been desperate and scared.

Wishing.

Wishing that the reason Toriel hadn't answered his frantic calls had only been because she had been perhaps preoccupied, or maybe reading a book --

Wishing the child had at least an ounce of mercy in that tiny body of theirs.

They hadn't.

He tries to wave away the fresh wave of nausea that comes with his thoughts.

He fails to do so, miserably.

.

.

.

It was easy enough to find all of Toriel's belongings.

He hadn't had the forethought to bring a suitcase of some sort, so he settles for levitating her entire wardrobe. 

And in that moment, Sans finds her joke book lying on a desk.

The smile on his face stretches a little wider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The grace period will be over soon...


End file.
